Heseltine's girl: My distress at watching four dyslexic children struggle to read

Heseltine clan: Annabel with her children Rafferty, Monty, Isabella and Mungo, and their grandfather Michael Heseltine
10 April 2012

Michael Heseltine's daughter has backed the Evening Standard's literacy campaign after revealing all four of her children have dyslexia.

Annabel Heseltine, who is editor of First Eleven, an education magazine written for parents of children in the independent sector, said she was left "anxious and distressed" after her three sons and daughter were diagnosed with the reading disability and admitted she dreaded meeting other mothers whose children were excelling at school.

She said she had to "face some unpalatable truths" about dyslexia and send her children to special schools in an attempt to improve their reading and writing skills.

Of the Standard's campaign to provide one-to-one volunteer reading mentors to children who are falling behind at school, she said: "Reading is the most important thing.

"When children have problems, reading with them one to one is the best thing you can do with them.

"A lot of children with difficulties are frightened of the page and they don't want to look at it. But someone taking the time to sit and share a book is the best support they can get."

Ms Heseltine's children are nine-year-old twins Mungo and Isabella, Rafferty, seven and Monty, five. She said teachers told her that Mungo, who took a year to learn the letter F, was the most dyslexic child they had seen in 30 years.

She said: "It is hard not to feel anxious for them, hard not to feel distressed when my sweet and talented daughter, who has won prizes for a book cover design, photography and poetry writing, sobs in my arms and says that she is 'rubbish' at school.

"Or when my son has difficulty counting to 20 at the age of eight and doesn't want to write more than his name because he fears he can't, even when his friends are reading Milly-Molly-Mandy or Horrid Henry.

"I found the school gate uncomfortable as I listened to other mothers telling me how well their children were doing." In a moving speech to headteachers at the Girls' Schools Association, in Bristol, Ms Heseltine, who lives in Monmouthshire, described what it feels like to have "six, seven and eight-year-olds who can't read, can't manage their numbers". She described her family as "riddled" with dyslexia, saying that her former Conservative deputy prime minister father could not read until he was nine.

He ran away from school, she revealed, and "has always said that the only reason he got into Oxford was because he didn't have to take a written exam".

Ms Heseltine, 48, who is married to pioneering facial surgeon Peter Butler, said children who hate reading should be given a comic instead of a book, or should even listen to audio cassette books to improve their vocabulary.

She added: "Getting children into reading is the most important thing you can do."

Get involved

To donate or volunteer visit www.standard.co.uk/getlondonreading

You can also donate by text. Just text DONATE to 70300 to give £10 to Volunteer Reading Help. The full amount goes to the fund and you can make as many £10 donations as you want.

Terms & Conditions: 100% of your donation will go to Volunteer Reading Help (Registered Charity No. 296454). When you text, you will receive two messages. Each message is charged at £5 costing a total of £10 plus your standard network rate. There will be a 15-minute delay between the two messages. Service Provider: Vir2 Ltd: support@vir2.co.uk or 08450 947 958

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in