Letters: Rod is wrong about J.K. Rowling

The sound of silence

Sir: Charles Moore is right to draw attention to the deafening silence in the press about the present state of South Africa (Notes, 10 June). Not only has the country descended into frightening levels of violence, but the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2021 placed it last of all countries tested, in both reading and comprehension. How long will the ANC ruling elite remain an untouchable holy cow for our press? It is South Africans who suffer most from this implicit censorship.

Margaret Vane

By email

Not cheap, not cheerful

Sir: Emily Rhodes notes that ‘books have never been more beautiful’ (‘Cooking the books’, 10 June). While this may be true of their covers, it is certainly not true of what’s between them. I recently bought a Bodley Head hardback for £20 and an £8.99 Black Swan paperback. Both are printed on floppy grey paper closely resembling bog roll. Both are also Penguin Random House imprints and proudly proclaim that the paper has been sourced sustainably. It would seem another instance of the obsession with net zero leading to reduced quality.

John Mounsey

Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire

JK is OK

Sir: Rod Liddle doesn’t seem to understand sexuality (‘On the hallowed terf’, 10 June). There’s no contradiction in J.K. Rowling’s support for a biological definition of both women and lesbians. Lesbians deny nothing about their biology – just insist that it’s normal for a consistent sample of biological women to prefer sex with women. The Kinsey reports of 1948 and 1953 shocked America by showing 37 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women had had some overt homosexual experience. Thank goodness Rod hasn’t read them -– he’d be appalled.

WHO’s in charge

Sir: Christopher Snowdon makes a thought-provoking case for leaving the World Health Organisation (WHO), aspirational though that may be (‘Mission creep’, 10 June).