Matt Haig, author of 'The Humans' and 'The Radleys' published by Canongate Books. He wrote this on Facebook, April 22nd 2013.

I hate all this grammar snobbery. I mainly hate it because I am always getting things wrong. Was and were. Past and passed. It is really embarrassing. I used to worry about it until I saw an email from my favourite writer that was riddled with spelling and grammatical mistakes. I remember at university having to do a module on English Language and nearly failing it. But then a bit later I learnt that Emily Dickinson's publisher always wanted to correct her punctuation and that Shakespeare's spellings were very inconsistent, and I realised grammar isn't everything. A lot of the time it's just a way for people to feel above market traders. Grammar is different to imagination, because it is about rules. And imagination has nothing to do with rules.

I'm always doing school workshops and presentations up and down the country. I'm also a fan of Matt Haig, a really great author. It was refreshing to see this on FB recently. I thought that most writers were good at grammar, but I'm not. So, it was nice to know that even the biggies aren't great at grammar. To me, as long as the kids enjoy the sessions thats fantastic. If the pupils imaginations are sparked by my workshops and the grammar isn't spot on, theres no need to worry. They're learning and building a story, the grammar can come later.