16 APRIL 2005, Page 24

Toffs and heroes

From Nicky Samengo-Turner Sir: Sam Leith has got the wrong end of the class-warrior stick rather than Max Hastings (Books, 9 April).

Hastings’s analogous reference to hunting is not a ‘tenuous’ connection between what Leith ignorantly perceives as different brands of courage, and Leith’s derogatory mention of Hastings’s ‘playing-fieldsof-Eton school of military philosophy’ reflects this reviewer’s chippy views.

Like it or otherwise, Leith, boys from Eton and Harrow have won more than 10 per cent of all Victoria Crosses: a feat all the more amazing when one considers what a tiny percentage of the population attended those schools.

Nicky Samengo-Turner

Hundon, Suffolk