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Letters

Wednesday, 5th March 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

London calling

Sir: Rod Liddle is not only nasty and sexist and silly, he’s wrong (‘Boris’s most brilliant wheeze’, 1 March). I’m not in Newcastle upon Tyne and I haven’t worked there for years. He could have called me up and I’d have told him where to find me on the London electoral roll (Camden), where I live and where I stood for the Green Party in the last local elections.

Beatrix Campbell
London NW1

Magic lines

Sir: I find myself going along with most of Paul Johnson’s choices (And another thing, 1 March). But there is surely one grievous omission, one total blind spot. Mr Johnson claims Keats is his favourite poet but says that all of his poems are ‘too long’. Surely he has forgotten — rather than considered and rejected — ‘On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer’? Perhaps the first eight lines are not absolutely top-drawer Keats, but the last six are pure magic, with the last line ‘Silent, upon a peak in Darien’ echoing and re-echoing down the years from one’s first encounter with it.

Edward Carr
Peterborough

Briefs encounter

Sir: Tamzin Lightwater writes (1 March) about David Cameron’s Vilebrequin swimwear. As any keen follower of political fashion knows, whereas Tony Blair wears Vilebrequins costing £80 a pair, Dave wears lookalikes manufactured by Boden. It would be possible to suggest metaphorical significance in this or, perhaps, to draw a conclusion about his pecuniary sense, depending on one’s own sympathies.

Oliver Marre
The Observer, London EC1

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Ian Rippey

March 9th, 2008 2:47pm

Charles Moore, writing in the Spectator some weeks ago (I cannot find it in his column in the Spectator going back to 1st December 2007) laments the fact that the late Auberon Waugh is no longer around to comment on topical matters. Fear not, Mr. Moore, there is an excellent (though rather less waspish) substitute: Peter Marren, whose contribution "Twitcher in the Swamp" appears in the excellent British Wildlife Magazine www.britishwildlife.com (published 6 times annually). For some years I have noticed the similarity of his comments and those of the late Mr. Waugh; indeed I think one or two of Mr. Waugh's expressions have been reproduced verbatim by Mr. Marren. As someone who obviously has more than a passing interest in wildlife (having recently purchased a Moth Trap, and also mentioned the tendency of the Holly Blue butterfly to lay its eggs on Ivy) I feel Mr. Moore would enoy this magazine (perhaps he already has a subscription?). Mr. Marren has also written "Twitching in the Swamp: Droppings from the natural world", published in 2004 by "Swamp Publishing", 122 Derwent Road, Thatcham, RG19 3UP. This 192 page book, with illustrations by David Carstairs, is based on 14 years of Mr. Marren's "musings" in British Wildlife magazine. Mr. Marren has also written a number of other books on Wildlife (notably on Wild Flowers and Wild Life Conservation). I do not own these but hopefully they are as readable as "Twitching Through The Swamp". Ian Rippey Portadown County Armagh Northern Ireland