About the author

1Greg Brooks is Emeritus Professor of Education, University of Sheffield, where he held a personal chair in 2002-07. He had previously worked at the National Foundation for Educational Research for 20 years, and before that taught for various periods in France, Kenya, Essex and Northern Ireland. He has been engaged in virtually full-time educational research since 1977, almost all of it concerned with literacy and/or the phonological aspects of language – phonological coding in silent reading, speaking and listening abilities, adult and family literacy, phonics and its phonetic underpinnings, literacy interventions for children and young people, trends in literacy and numeracy attainment over time, and of course spelling. He is a former President, and Honorary Life Member, of the UK Literacy Association, and a member of the Reading Hall of Fame. In 2011-12 he was one of the 10 expert members of the European Union High Level Group of Experts on Literacy, and in 2015 is Chairperson of the Federation of European Literacy Associations, and a member of the management board of the European Literacy Policy Network.