Letter: Roger Mayne's photographs echoed pieces of literature

A less well known but important aspect of the photography of Roger Mayne was his contribution to the teaching of English in schools. In 1960, at Walworth comprehensive school in south London, my colleagues, John Dixon, Leslie Stratta and I discovered Roger's photos of Southam Street, Paddington, through the New Left Review. They were exactly complementary to what we and others were developing in new English studies courses, drawing on the experience and language of children growing up in London. At that time we were asking pupils to reflect upon their experience of family life and playing out in the street.

We realised we needed photographs in our new English textbook, Reflections (1963), which was at that time a new idea and we had to argue the case for the inclusion of photographs with Oxford University Press.