Teenagers Without Supervision

Wednesday. School holidays again. A class of teenagers came today, six of them, and not a parent among them. I was delighted. No grown-ups, I thought, means no sense.

Then I read the notice. If every student in a class is fourteen or older, no grown-up need come at all. If any of them is ten to thirteen, a grown-up must stay in the building, though not in the sanctum; they sit in the foyer with a coffee and a phone, which they may keep because they are not playing.

The teenagers went in and did what teenagers do best, which is reading. The castle speaks in English, the clues come in English, and plenty of what is written in there must be read properly. One of them read everything aloud in a dramatic voice. I could hear it through the wall. It was, I am sorry to say, very good.

I have asked Crumpet how old he is. He would not say. Newts are like that.