A spelling bee in Dorothy’s bonnet

During the Seventies and Eighties, i worked as a typist in a South London police station in what was known as the Juvenile Bureau. i worked with a formidable lady called Dorothy, who was some 25 years older than me. She put a lot of emphasis on correct diction, spelling and grammar — the old school, so to speak. One of the projects the Juvenile Bureau undertook was to go into schools and give lessons on all aspects of lawfulness and the green Cross Code road safety scheme. Schools were encouraged to participate in the Panda Competition, and the winning school had a grand evening of entertainment where a well-known celebrity came along as compere to award the trophy. Dorothy and i were expected to attend the evening and look after the refreshments. While we were waiting for the competition to conclude, Dorothy and i would walk around the school looking at all the notices and artwork displayed on the walls of the classrooms and in corridors. We were horrified to see many spelling errors, even on official notices. One of Dorothy’s bugbears was the word plimsolls, often spelled with an extra ‘p’, and Caribbean spelled with just one ‘b’. One evening, Dorothy was so annoyed she got out a red marker pen and corrected all the spelling errors! Sadly, all these years later, i have to report there’s little progress in some quarters! Carol Fitzgerald,

Sutton, Surrey.