AceShowbiz - Dame Penelope Wilton claims people thought she was "stupid" when she struggled with dyslexia as a child. The "Downton Abbey" star has said she didn't get any professional with the learning difficulty because the condition wasn't widely recognised when she was young, but she credits her mum and her elder sister with helping her learn by reading to her regularly.

"I was dyslexic as a child, at a time when dyslexia wasn't diagnosed. You didn't get much help - people just thought you were stupid," she explained in an interview with The Sunday Times newspaper.

"My dyslexia seems to have got better with age, but when I was younger I was read to by my mother and my older sister. 'The Wind In The Willows' by Kenneth Grahame was a favourite."

Penelope previously admitted she struggled at school because of her dyslexia but she also blamed a series of unhelpful teachers with hindering her education after she had to attend boarding school because of her mother's health issues.

The actress admitted she had to go it alone most of the time and teach herself. She told the Telegraph newspaper, "As a little girl, I had gone to an extremely good convent school. But because my mother became ill, I then went to two terrible boarding schools with not very good teachers; anything I've learnt, I've taught myself."

"So I've always had a slight inferiority complex about my education. However, being an actor is a fascinating education in itself, as you are researching every¬thing you do. So it set me on a path to find out about things."

She added of her experience at school, "I told my parents I hated it, but my mother was very ill and couldn't cope with the three of us girls. I was too cowed by authority at the time; and I could only go home at half term, which was just a long weekend, anyway. You did get letters from your family, though - and eventually I got used to it."