17 JUNE 2006, Page 30

Outlasting the ladies

From S.C. Chafe Sir: I sympathise with Matthew Parris’s selfdeprecating complaint about groups of women dining: the noise, the babbling and the enthusiastic shrieking (Another voice, 3 June). He not only asks the question but provides the explanation and invites criticism. This is unnecessary. I suggest he does what we do when encountering such groups at our wine lunches. This involves no complaint, no acknowledgment and no effort at all on our behalf. We simply outlast them!

S.C. Chafe

Victoria, Australia