16 SEPTEMBER 1989, Page 27

Sir: Ian Buruma, as 'an irredeemable hybrid' will have understandable

difficulty in knowing what a sense of national identity is. But many people do not.

For example, all my 32 great, great, great grandparents were born in England. Give or take a few ancestors, I should imagine that that is why people who are English feel English. Ian Buruma was manufacturing difficulties of national identity which, for many people, do not exist.

Geoffrey Robinson

Salts End, Gosshall Lane, Ash, Canterbury