You must be about my age retrocop, I still remember, and shudder about, 'Quatermass and the Pit' - the sand rippling round the poor guy trying to make it to the sanctuary of the church door! I was frightened to bits, when very young, by the wicked queen in 'Snow White'. There were other things I hid behind the settee and peeked out on.
A children's story I submitted was rejected as 'not being scary enough'. Children need to be frightened, but they have to be in a safe situation at the time. That way they learn to cope with fear. Today's lot are, generally speaking, mollycoddled. I cried buckets over Bambi.
Kids are far too [protect