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Stoppard warns over demise of 'printed page'

22.06.10 | Catherine Neilan

Playwright Sir Tom Stoppard has warned the "printed page" is in danger of being edged out in a "world of technology", the Guardian reports.

Stoppard, author of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, was speaking yesterday ahead of an address to the Prince's Teaching Institute summer school next week.

"I am aware, as everybody has to be, that there's more competition for one's attention nowadays," he said. "The printed word is no longer as in demand as when I was of the age of pupils or even at the age of the teachers teaching them."

The "moving image," he added, was taking precedence in many children's lives over "the printed page … [and] I think that's to the detriment".

The playwright stressed that he was not making a case for "good and bad", pointing out that his sons and grandchildren know things that he does not because of technology. "I just don't want the printed page to get swept away by that," he said.

• Catherine Neilan
• digital
• e-books
• Tom Stoppard