Heartbeats of delight
Sir: Few would disagree with Paul Johnson’s view that prolonging the human lifespan is of little value if it merely gives us extra years of Alzheimer’s and debility (And another thing, 30 August). But we do not all live for the average span, and one reason for the increase in average age since the early 19th century has been the massive reduction in child mortality. It is difficult to believe that in his historical studies Johnson has not encountered the miseries caused by the death of beloved children. Numerous books, for example, describe the pain which Charles Darwin suffered as a result of the death of his favourite daughter Anne in 1851, and Thomas Huxley’s grief when his son Noel died of scarlet fever in 1860. Most bereaved parents, of course, have left no record of their feelings, but it is not difficult to imagine those of Murdo Matheson as he commissioned the gravestone in Kilmory churchyard, Rum, which lists five of his children who died of diphtheria within three days in September 1873. And, more positively, science surely did bring smiles and ‘heartbeats of delight’ to those children in the same era who were introduced to the aquarium tank and the wonders of the shore by the natural history books of P.H. Gosse and Charles Kingsley.
Chris Preston
Cambridge
Sir: Shortly after having a cataract operation, I read Paul Johnson’s statement that he sees ‘no evidence that all the technical knowledge we now possess has increased the sum of human happiness by one smile or a single heartbeat of delight’. My operation involved an ultrasonic probe to break up the old lens; the new one was manufactured in Fort Worth, Texas, not without significant technical knowledge of materials and optics. The operation was painless, thanks to pharmacology. Doesn’t this combination of technical knowledge allow people like me at least the delight of reading Mr Johnson’s articles?
Dr W. Pickin
Swansea
Russia unhinged
Sir: Vladimir Putin recently implied that John McCain was to blame for the war in Georgia. Russian intelligence claims that American military instructors have been in the war zone in Georgia. Why? Because they found an American passport (obviously lost or stolen) in that zone. Anne Applebaum, former deputy editor of The Spectator, studying the material for her book on the Gulag, came to the conclusion that as a result of its awful history, Russia is mentally unbalanced. I agree with her. The above mentioned statements and the whole aggression against Georgia are a clear example of delusional psychosis. The West should be aware of this and keep Russia at a long distance.
Oleg Gordievsky
London WC1
Famous last words
Sir: I don’t think that Martin Vander Weyer (‘Forget economic recovery, Gordon’, 23 August) is correct in intimating that Blackadder was the source of the famous line ‘What we need at this stage of the war is a futile gesture’. To the best of my recollection it was first used in Beyond the Fringe when the hapless Perkins is sent on a mission ‘from which there is no hope of you returning’, to quote his commanding officer. The sketch ends with another famous line, ‘God I wish I was going with you, Perkins’.
Peter Cooch
Great Brington, Northampton
Cocktails in purgatory
Sir: My old friend Taki says (High life, 30 August) that the French ambassador who was sacked because he described Israel as a ‘s****y little country’ is now ‘giving cocktail parties in Algiers or somewhere as depressing’.
Well, maybe. Daniel Bernard — for that was his name — is in fact dead. After he was outed as an alleged anti-Semite — his unguarded and reckless remark was made in 2001 at a party given for Boris Johnson by Conrad Black — he was shipped out to Algeria, where he died in 2004.
He was a delightful man, funny and self-deprecating. Once, at a Spectator lunch of rare and gristly roast beef, he saw off a table of Eurosceptics with his charm and gentle mockery.
If Daniel Bernard is indeed in a place as depressing as Algiers, those who have been praying for the repose of his soul will be much cheered. At least he has made it to purgatory.
Stuart Reid
London SW12
In search of honour
Sir: Taki’s admiration for the samurai’s honour code (High life, 23 August) and his repeated words of praise for the Wehrmacht in past columns deserve the following comments: the Japanese treatment of prisoners, both civilian and military, during the second world war was atrociously barbaric and against any civilised code. This behaviour was conducted under the direction of officers who knew the Geneva Convention; they deserved the punishment that they later received.
The behaviour of the Germans in occupied countries is well documented and their record was not pleasant, to put it mildly. Taki should know this as his country was under the German boot for several years .
Last but not least, Taki should thank the Brits because it was British intervention in 1945 that prevented a communist takeover in Greece as happened in Eastern Europe. I do not think he or his family would have enjoyed communist rule.
M.A. de A Brandao
Via email
Riefenstahl’s record
Sir: Jonathan Mirsky correctly identifies (Letters, 23 August) the ‘ceremonial Potemkin’ of the Beijing Olympics but he is wrong to state that Leni Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will was about the 1936 Nazi event. It was instead a record of the Nuremburg congress of the NSDAP held in 1934. Riefenstahl did however go on to record the 1936 Games and the resulting film bore the (seemingly appropriate) title of Olympia.
Mark Watson
Bristol
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