Every letter counts by Susan Hampshire

Every letter counts Reviews

• 
  Paul Magnussen

  You probably know Susan Hampshire as a beautiful, talented, intelligent and charming actress who has won Emmies for her rôles in such BBC productions as The Forsyte Saga, The First Churchills and Vanity Fair.
  
  What you may not know is that she is dyslexic, and active in promoting dyslexia awareness. She’s published two books on the subject: her autobiography,
  Susan’s Story, and now this.
  
  Every Letter Counts is a collection of interviews with dyslexics (including several celebrities such as Angharad Rees, Jackie Stewart and Michael Heseltine) describing the problems they met, and how they overcame these. The book also contains appendices with advice and a list of support organisations around the World.
  
  My principal emotion on finishing it was horror at the way these children were treated by insensitive, uncaring or just plain stupid teachers. One parent was actually told by a headmaster: “Dyslexia is a modern fad and we are not going to tolerate it here, it is simply an excuse for laziness.”
  
  This is not a psychology textbook, and the underlying causes of dyslexia are only briefly touched upon. Rather, its purpose is to help and encourage dyslexics by showing them that their difficulties can be, and have been, overcome (80% of the author’s royalties go to the Dyslexic Institute Bursary Fund).
  
  Editions
  
  Originally, I bought the
  Corgi paperback edition, not realising that it’s abridged: 24 of the 57 interviews in the
  Bantam original are omitted! And it only says so in small print on the 4th page!
  
  So 5 stars for the original, 4 for the Corgi edition and 1 star to Corgi for not making that information plain on the cover.