THIRTY years ago, in another life, I taught rich kids English literature. What else could a poor young writer do? One 16-year-old struggled with Animal Farm. I told her: ‘Think of the Russian Revolution – it’ll put the book in context’. She stared blankly at me. ‘You’ve heard of Lenin?’ I asked. She shrugged. ‘Stalin?’ ‘No,’ she said. I thought I’d probe deeper. ‘Hitler?’ ‘I’ve heard about him,’ she said, hesitantly. By now I was bewildered so I asked, ‘You know about the Holocaust, right?’ ‘No,’ she replied. ‘Nazis murdered six million Jews,’ I said. She looked horrified. This was 1991. I was breaking news of the Holocaust to a teenager.