The interviews covered such issues as the buying of presents, and how often children engaged in activities such as watching television, playing with toys or going for a walk. A total of 57 infants took part, 29 from the control group, the rest from Bookstart.The families, who were told they were taking part in a study of home activities, were interviewed intensively at their homes. With the help of the health authority, they selected a control group of parents whose children were born at the same time as the Bookstart children, by now approaching three, and compared them with a random sample from Bookstart Both groups had similar ethnic/socio-economic mixes. "We found Bookstart was also effective in kindling a new interest in books and an awareness of their importance in better-off families."Drs Wade and Moore then sought concrete evidence of long-term benefit.

Questionnaires sent to more than a hundred of the Bookstart families after six months revealed that the pack had led to increased sharing of books with babies, more family reading generally, more babies enrolled in libraries, and increased book purchase and membership of book clubs."Many low-income families said they had been afraid to join libraries for fear that their babies would damage the books Inviting them to join overcame that obstacle," says Dr Wade. One in a 100 can properly be described as illiterate, according to the National Commission on Education.Bookstart in Birmingham was initiated by the Young Book Trust (then the Children's Book Trust) in co-operation with Birmingham library services and local health authorities as a one-off "catch them early" intervention.Evidence that such an intervention can have a profound effect has emerged in work carried out by Dr Barrie Wade, reader in English in Education at Birmingham University, and Dr Maggie Moore, senior lecturer at Newman College, Birmingham Their preliminary findings are impressive. They might be restricting sharing books with their children to a story at bedtime, for instance, whereas it should be an activity that is integrated as part of the whole day.Nearly 15 per cent of school-leavers and adults have limited literacy skills. Middle-class parents who were both working, they argued, could also be failing to share books with their children, not through lack of purchasing power, but through ignorance and mistaken priorities. Free books, such as The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, and poems were distributed to more than 300 new parents, together with tips on reading and library membership. The scheme was based on an American project, but whereas the US venture targeted the unemployed and blue-collar workers, the British did not assume that only low-income families would benefit.

Some children were arriving at school not even knowing how to handle a book. Its 25 per cent stake in Edinburgh Woollen Mills should provide a useful source of capital if the plan to float it goes ahead next year.The shares rose 5p to 149p yesterday, but analysts are not rushing to raise their forecasts which stay around pounds 10.7m for the full year and pounds 11.8m next for an unexciting prospective price/earnings ratio of 13.. Sharing books with babies as young as nine months could be the key to long-term improvements in literacy, according to new research. The first results of an experimental scheme in Birmingham indicate that early exposure to books accelerates a child's development, concentration and interactive skills and makes parents and children more interested in reading. Bookstart was launched three years ago in response to concern about reading standards and the dominance of television. Grampian has a useful niche in the disposal of waste from building sites, which should escape the Chancellor's landfill taxes, but the fastest growth is in specialised warehousing where Grampian is set to expand south from its strongholds in Scotland and the north. All its products are strictly for the animals, including new vaccines for cattle with coughs and diarrhoea, which should start to pay back at last next year after a seven year period which cost between pounds 5m in development costs.For the time being the performance from pharmaceuticals remains slightly disappointing, thanks to licensing delays and now increased material costs and margin pressures in Australia.For the next year or two, the star performer will be the transport division which is running a close second to pharmaceuticals in profit contributions this year.

Fortunately for shareholders, the switch is unlikely to change the company's rating.Grampian has never been in the business of producing pharmaceuticals for people anyway. On the other hand, the payout was covered a healthy four times, more comfortable than Bank of Scotland's peers.The bank's conservative dividend policy means it will never be much of a yield stock.The yield stood at 2.4 per cent for this year, a stingier payout ratio than even its parsimonious rivals. On a price/earnings ratio of 9.4 this year, however, against a sector average of 10, the shares are reasonable value on earnings grounds.Grampian is back where it belongsGrampian Holdings sits more easily in the Diversified Industrials category where it has returned after two years masquerading as a pharmaceutical. That growth in market share led to a 15 per cent improvement in assets from pounds 32bn to pounds 36.8bn.Another disappointment was provided by the interim dividend, up 15 per cent to 2.45 pence per share - rather less than the City was hoping for. The market had been expecting profits of up to pounds 280m.Worryingly, operating expenses grew 16 per cent to pounds 343m from pounds 296m. Many of these costs, however, were incurred by the Bank's highly successful finance house operation NWS which is recruiting heavily.Margins were squeezed, going down from 2.8 per cent in the second half of 1994 to 2.6 per cent for the first half of 1995.The Bank has expanded its market share, especially in the mortgage market, but has been forced to raise much of its funds in the relatively expensive wholesale money markets.