17 JUNE 1972, Page 28

Fleet St women

Sir: As a New Statesman reader, I was rather glad that Anthony Howard had rejected Olga Franklin's overtures. This is not to say that her article (May 20) was not interesting. Indeed, as a concise yet informative account of women's superiority in Fleet Street it was eminently readable.

But why did Miss Franklin have to spoil it with her daring references to wee-wee," lactation ' and the Fleet Street ladies' extra-marital children? Surely this studied condescension to us oh-sopermissive readers is a type of journalism which belongs to the sexily chic glossies and not to a responsible paper such as The Spectator.

Michael Davis

5 Peregrine Close, Basildon, Essex