I HAVE recently become acquainted with Education Secretary Michael Gove’s new GCSE curriculum, and I am very disappointed.

It now seems that only British authors can be taught to English students, so such great American novels such as Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird are abandoned in favour of Great Expectations. This is a 19th century work which describes a society which no longer exists, while the American authors describe situations which students can relate to in their own lives.

This extends to history. Now only British history can be taught. So the American War of Independence, the American Civil War, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Revolution never happened? What kind of smallminded parochial garbage is this?

There’s a lot of world out there, Mr Gove, and we’d like our children to learn about it.

H Davies, Crook.