Depressed, unemployed, obese: this is the picture of a Britain that doesn't read

READING can be for solitary pleasure or it can be a quotidian task. Some people avoid books in favour of other forms of recreation; others read everywhere from bathrooms to Tube carriages. Some people love reading so much they even study English till the very end of school.

- Tomiwa Owolade

In fact a decade ago English was the most popular subject at A-level. It was also one of the most popular university degrees. This year it was the 12th most popular A-level course, lagging behind other subjects like maths and geography, physics and history. And the number of students who took English at university has fallen by a third in the past decade. The status of English is in steep decline in the British education system; schoolchildren and university undergraduates are falling out of love with it.

My reason for choosing English at A-level a decade ago, and subsequently studying it at university, was not because it was popular. It was because I loved it and recognised literature as one of the art forms in which Britain most excels. William Shakespeare in drama. John Donne in poetry. Jane Austen in fiction. The canon is full of geniuses.