Almost a third of British schoolchildren under 13 do not know who William Shakespeare is, a survey has found.
The survey, which involved 1,000 pupils aged between six and 12 from across the country, revealed 30 per cent are unaware of the country’s most celebrated writer.
About a quarter of adults (27 per cent) have not read a play by Shakespeare and about one in eight (12 per cent) are unaware that he was a British playwright.
A number of stars of stage and screen have now backed calls for a rethink of how Shakespeare’s classic works are taught to young people.
Actor Jeremy Irons said: “I think so many people are put off Shakespeare at school and, like so much of drama, you have to see it in order to be moved by it. Then you begin to go back to the text and you begin to understand the world, the imagination behind those words.”