I've always been a voracious reader - in 3rd class (ago 8) we did a speed & comprehension test & I went way past the number of words the teacher had counted!

Nowadays I don't remember so much but I still read zillions of books. I belong to 2 local libraries which each allow 20 books out at once ...

Some of the books & magazines I read as a kid were light & frivolous - some of the books & magazines I read as an adult are light & frivolous ... Quite often I would read words I didn't understand, today I still come across unfamiliar words, but that's what dictionaries are for. And why some authors include a glossary in their works.

Now THEY are going to replace all the old words with modern words in new editions of the world famous Enid Blyton books!

Lashings of editing jolly bad for Blyton books

Back in the 80's I put on a small exhibition of dolls in historic costume in a girls school where a friend worked. I described the costumes as the writers of the time did (& provided explanations of these terms in brackets where necessary.) At the same time I had friends who were curators at the new state Museum who had to re-write captions to exhibits in language a 12-year old would understand cos the expensive Consultants hired by management said that was the national reading age.