Having today found your email address, I couldn’t as ex pupil not write to you about the marvellous (and very educative) summers that you gave me! … I am now 20, and I am never tired of remembering how important to me were those summers of my adolescence … the treasure hunt on the moors, the camping days in the rain, the swimming in the freezing rivers, the text of the songs that you made us learn, the famous mini bus (is it still running?), that fine old piano that you jumped at us for not knowing how to play, the trips to Harrogate, the lessons, the long table at which we ate. All this is part of my life, I tell stories about it, I remember it and it make me smile, and this along with other experiences has formed me… the phrase, “Alice has been having a shower for ages” buzzes in my head whenever I think of using the present perfect continuous – not to speak of the lines of Lady Macbeth: they are stamped with fire in my mind!

MARGHERITA