This whole new development must be making Beelzebub rather annoyed.

I can’t imagine there are many parents who still use the phrase about the devil finding work for idle hands, not least because the hands of the young are virtually never idle, being endlessly active on their phones.

And in a sense this is the heart of the problem.  When even TV (the curse of previous generations, at least according to earlier generations of parents) is considered passé, how does one encourage more reading of the classics from an era which was pre-TV?

But I believe we should, and indeed I still retain the belief that reading as a natural and normal enjoyable hobby will always be with us, not least because none of the previous dire warnings about the end of literature have come to pass.

Cinema, television, video machines, the internet, computer games: each has offered a new threat to an interest in reading by the young but as one entertainment is replaced by another, books and reading still remain.

Indeed I am told that the age of the average Facebook user is now rising so fast that by 2021 most users of the “platform” (as I have been trained to call it) will actually no longer be with us, and the service will be primarily used by mediums as a way of contacting those who have passed over.

The printed book, however, still going strong after six centuries, will remain.

And this is where Wordsworth Editions come in, as we have a wide range of books from as little as £1.88 each (with no delivery charge and no minimum order) covering authors from Wilkie Collins to Joseph Conrad, Conan Doyle to Mary Shelley.

Books ranging from those that are perfect introductions for teenagers who have forgotten about reading print, to the absolute classics of English literature.  If you want to see our selection of 50 essential texts please do click here.

We also have our offer of a free book just in case you have not come across Wordsworth Editions before.  (Or indeed just in case the notion of books from as little as £1.88 each with free delivery seems just too good to be true.)

So, to receive a free sample of one of our classics without any obligation please do email education@wordsworth-editions.com with your name and the school address, and we’ll put it in the post to you with our compliments.