Michael Gove, the education secretary, is planning to ban classic American
novels from British classrooms, as he believes that our children should
only study work by British authors.

This is wrong on so many levels. It would deprive our children from some of the greatest literary works in history, including John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and the Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.

It would rob school students of intimate insight into the very different issues, values, cultural nuances and linguistic quirks of another continent, thousands of miles away, and yet delivered in their native language.

American literature also holds up a mirror to Britain’s own very rich canon of domestic literature, allowing students to consider it in a different, more informed light.

What we are facing here is cultural edification being snatched from all due to the parochial idiocy of one man. It must be stopped! Please sign here if you agree.