Vive le TGV
Sir: I was surprised to read about the vexations of Ross Clark on the TGV (‘Train à Grande Vexation’, 7 August). My experiences on this train have always been excellent. Last winter I was able to buy a return ticket between London and Avignon for only £110. Changing trains in Lille was perfectly easy, as the platforms were adjacent. And I find it a particular blessing that passengers are not allowed to use mobile telephones in the carriages.
Rail passengers are far more likely to encounter problems in France when they are using ordinary trains, particularly those travelling from east to west or vice versa. It is as well for Ross Clark’s temper that he has never been stuck for two hours at a station along the lines of the legendary Farfouilly-les-oies. Then he might have discovered the full measure of French indifference.
Marie-Christine Bellando
London W11
Sir: Readers should not be put off travelling on the marvellous TGV by Ross Clark’s one bad experience. My wife and I have travelled to the Côte d’Azur by Eurostar/TGV for years, with one easy same-station change at Lille Europe. At £109 return from London, the fare is hardly a ‘rip-off’, and almost invariably the journey is trouble-free, exhilarating, relaxing, comfortable and much more pleasant than flying. The conductors can be a bit unforthcoming, but the buffet staff are normally charming.
David Reed
Huddersfield
Politics and the press
Sir: Jonathan Foreman’s article (‘Crisis in Kashmir’, 7 August) suggests that press coverage can make a noticeable difference to political situations. I disagree. He regularly quotes the Israeli/Palestinian situation, which has not changed one tiny bit over several decades despite extensive press coverage. Why can’t we accept that the press is primarily for entertainment (which The Spectator does particularly well) and leave it at that? The Kashmiris need to look for another route to improve their situation. I suggest serious and pragmatic engagement with the Indian government.
Andrew Levens
Ashton Keynes, Swindon
Duplicitous dons
Sir: I read with interest Philip Ziegler’s review of Attlee: A Life in Politics by Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds (Books, 31 July). Many years ago in the early 1960s I nursed Lord Attlee in the King Edward VIIth Hospital for Officers and Gentlemen, London. I noticed that he was reading C.P. Snow’s novel The Masters, which was about the duplicitous behaviour of dons electing a Master for a college. As I was a great fan of C.P. Snow at the time and had enjoyed his books, I asked Lord Attlee how he was liking it. ‘Extraordinary,’ he replied. ‘I cannot ever imagine any of my cabinet ministers behaving like that.’
Even to my very young ears, I felt this was a slightly naive view of the political world and this was years before we were accustomed to sleaze stories. I should think Lord Attlee would turn in his grave if he knew how politics are conducted today.
Sheila Berger
By email
Posh pilots
Sir: Toby Young’s claim that the Battle of Britain pilots ‘were nearly all public schoolboys’ (Status anxiety, 7 August) is contradicted in Leo McKinstry’s Spitfire: Portrait of a Legend. Only 200 of the 3,000 pilots had such an education (there were more Czechs, even). And the legend that the gilded youth of Britain redeemed their earlier Oxford Union ‘refusal to fight for King and Country’ by valiantly becoming ‘the few’ is, I am afraid, just that.
Dr Ian A. Olson
Aberdeen
Eh oop Rod!
Sir: ‘If I were still at the BBC, I would relish the opportunity to move northwards,’ says Rod Liddle (Liddle Britain, 7 August). Well, what’s stopping him moving here anyway? His assertion reminds one of Gandhi’s ‘I would like to be a sweeper in my next life’: offered the opportunity to become a sweeper in this one, he declined.
Ken Bishop
Liverpool
Taki tribute
Sir: What a magnificent man your Taki is (High life, 7 August). Unmatched as a social commentator and as an admirer of beautiful women (the mother of his children above all), he is also an intuitive yachtsman. He is quite right that William Fife is one of the greatest yacht designers of the 20th century. I am lucky that my father shared Taki’s passion for Fife and I grew up absorbed in the glory of his work. I learned as a boy that his yachts are instantly recognisable from their lines and sheer and grace — they soar across the water.
All is not quite lost to the ‘superyacht stinkpot’ culture which Taki rightly bemoans. One of Fife’s loveliest cruising yachts, Eilean (1936), which my father owned in the 1960s, has just been rescued and restored impeccably to her original glory by Angelo Bonati, a great Italian yachtsman and President of Panerai watches. She is now Panerai’s flagship. Time, motion, history and beauty combined — perfect.
William Shawcross
St Mawes, Cornwall
The ego has landed
Sir: I was very impressed with Allison Pearson’s letter (7 August). ‘My book is just as original and acute about the human condition as anything written by my male contemporaries.’ It seems almost miraculous that something containing such an immense ego could fit through the Spectator’s letter box at all.
Gary Williams
by email
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