Vulgar debate
Sir: I have to disagree with Theodore Dalrymple on his always jaundiced view of England and the English (‘Common people’, 6 November). I work in a tourist area of Sydney and find the English/British the least offensive of any of the overseas visitors. They are also the most attractive, especially the young backpackers all tanned up from days on Bondi beach. And always very polite.
I travel to England twice a year and use the trains and tubes, and the ferry over to France, and am always impressed by the orderliness I encounter.
Sure, I see some fat, tattooed, pierced, appallingly toothed people, but surely they are the descendants of Sir Francis Drake and the armies of Nelson and Wellington?
Lily Murray
Glebe, NSW, Australia
Sir: I commute regularly from France and Theodore Dalrymple’s observation of the vulgar Britons uncannily reflects my own impressions. I would go even further in my condemnation. He mentions the dreadful choice of books on sale at UK airports, but he fails to point out that, by my estimation, only one in ten passengers ever reads anything on the two-hour flight to or from the south of France. Furthermore, such is the jingoistic attitude of most of the British passengers that few of them feel any obligation to utter one word of the French language; they just speak louder in their lazy English tones. I usually feel ashamed to be British in such company.
Robin Boyle
Bargemon, France
Biting rebuke
Sir: Barry Humphries’s otherwise excellent diary in your latest edition (6 November) was marred by a reference to ‘pillow biters’. This reveals the contempt in which he holds so many of Dame Edna’s fans who have made him so rich. Shame on him for writing it. Shame on you for publishing.
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