I cannot remember a time when I could not read. There must have been a time when I was learning my letters but it is lost in the mists of antiquity.

I must have been reasonably good at a fairly young age because I can remember being given sixpence by my elderly uncle, who suffered from very poor sight, as a reward for reading him the City pages in The Times newspaper as we sat outside the family beach hut in Frinton-on-Sea.

I doubt if I could make head or tail of what I was reading but, after all, a sixpence was a sixpence!

It is certainly true that I devoured books, good, bad or indifferent, and have never lost my taste for them.

So when I acquired my Honorary Grandchildren I was only too happy to read to them and encourage them to learn for themselves the pleasures books can bring.

It is one of the skills which grandparents generally have in abundance and it has brought me much enjoyment.

It has also passed on to the children a love for books which I hope will never leave them. When I was at boarding school I spent many a happy hour tucked away behind the long curtains sneaking a quiet read when I should have been otherwise engaged.

Now I see the Brighton and Hove Older People's Council is seeking to emphasise the benefits older people can bring, bearing in mind their experience and skills.

I certainly hope the powers-that-be will recognise the immense fund of knowledge which exists in a section of the community who have the time and patience to pass on that knowledge to hungry little minds.

The Learning and Skills Council use scarce resources to buy learning packages when they have a splendid, untapped and willing resource in the growing number of older people, many of whom have spent a lifetime passing on numeracy and literacy skills and who still have the ability to do so.

The older people's council has written to the Sussex Learning and Skills Council reminding them that such a resource exists and pointing out it is not always a requirement to have a recognised accreditation in order to be able to pass on one's skills.

There is, of course, another side to the coin.

By keeping their minds active, older people will also benefit from such a sharing of knowledge.

Joan Moorhouse, vice-chairman of the older people's council, says such educational activities help to keep older people mentally and physically fit. They also contribute to a better quality of life with the obvious knock-on benefits of easing pressure on the already overworked medical services.

All this seems a long way from sitting outside a beach hut in Essex, but I am in no doubt as to the benefits I derived from a very early introduction to the written word.

Teachers these days seem to have ever more paper work thrust upon them to take up valuable teaching time and it is often the teaching assistants who have the job of imbuing their small charges with a love of words.

If there is a shortage of such valuable help, the education authority could do worse than visit some of the University of the Third Age gatherings or talk to the older people's council to see if there are any interested members who could share their knowledge with the younger generation.

Not everyone wants to go on doing such things after a certain age but they might find a useful number who would be happy to share their skills.

I doubt if their charges will want to read the City pages of The Times but a small helping of Thomas The Tank Engine might be tempting!