'Reading aloud meant group recitation, which Dylan hated. Chanting a poem in unison one afternoon, he put his hands over his ears and burst out, 'I can't stand it, I can't stand it.' Subsequently he and his fellow pupils were allowed to recite poems of their choice. Standing alongside Mrs Hole, the seven-year-old Dylan annouced he was going to do 'my grave poem', and started to intone: 'Let's talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs Make dust our paper and with rainy eyes Mark sorrow on the bosom of the earth...' He ended in stunned silence. His class had no idea he had been quoting Shakespeare's "Richard II".'