A graduate of the programme receives her certificate

EYP is an admirable project that identifies school pupils who are at risk of getting into trouble or becoming pregnant and places them in nurseries looking after young children part-time for some weeks. The idea is to let them know exactly what childcare entails – not to put them off but to encourage them to think about what they want and when.

Suzanne Collier receives the Pandora Award, a writing desk

At the annual Christmas party of Women in Publishing, the Pandora Award is presented to the woman who has most distinguished herself in the field of publishing. This year the award went to Suzanne Collier, founder in 1999 of bookcareers.com.

Plenary at the Youth Summit

On Saturday, the Civic Centre hosted a Youth Summit, where we invited young people to spend the day with officers, youth workers, councillors, police and others and give us their views about the recent disturbances and other issues that concern them. About 40 young people, from the Enfield Youth Parliament, youth clubs, schools, Scouts and other groups, kindly gave up their time to take part.

Endeavour has just taken over the Riverside building in Sheffield, a former school, as a centre to house its Youth Achievement Foundation and other programmes, including for young offenders. The chief executive, Les Roberts, seems to have negotiated a clever deal on buying the place, which was empty and derelict.

Your head in a book is a good start

Here are the last of my tests you can take to see if you’re an editor in the making.

8.    You understand that sometimes there have to be rules and you can obey them without feeling that your whole identity is at stake.
Ever encountered a red traffic light? Of course you have. Did you stop at it? I hope so. Why did you stop?

6.    Your ego is small and perfectly formed.
Whether you are a proofreader or an editor, you will, as a rule, receive no published credit for your efforts.

Ed's speech was written - and edited

Here we continue my little series of tests for you to determine whether you have what it takes to be an editor, with tests 4 and 5.

4.    You have an instinct for knowing what you don’t know, when to consult and how.
This is the trickiest part of all in editing. You need to show yourself intelligent, imaginative and insightful but without being a smart-aleck.

Will this notice make people 'desist'?

We were thinking the other day about whether editors are born or made and whether you are one. (I use the word ‘editor’ to mean someone reputable and diligent, not in the News of the World context.) I offered you test number 1 of your aptitude and ability. Here are test numbers 2 and 3.

'Thanks to the bearer'

Holding a genuine 1948 London Olympic torch wouldn’t do much for a lot of people, but I found it quite moving. In the torch relay at the start of each Olympiad, one torch is exchanged for a new one after some miles, so there are a number of these torches around, although the older they are the rarer and the more sought after by collectors. The one I held is worth £8-10,000.

Looks OK - or does it?

Some editors are born. Their destiny is inescapable. Poor souls, they have no choice.

I was one. My parents were German-speaking and, insofar as anyone speaks at all at the age of two, I spoke German and English and did translations from one to the other. I read a newspaper upside-down at the age of four and started early correcting what people said and wrote. We kept a dictionary on the dining table to settle our arguments about words.