12 AUGUST 1989, Page 18

Sir: I believe that the man indirectly responsible for the

word `naff is none other than Lord Blake, Provost of the Queen's College in Oxford. I remember that in 1977 his membership of the Nation- al Association for Freedom was exciting the usual outrage amongst certain stu- dents, and that one night somebody spray- painted `NAFF OFF BLAKE!' across the entire front wall of the College facing the High Street. Nobody I spoke to at the time had encountered the word before, but of course since then it has gone from strength to strength.

Charles Jennings

PO Box 309, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British WI