18 SEPTEMBER 1993, Page 28

Stop wincing

Sir: What a susceptible man poor A. N. Wilson must be. I am sure that no knight's widow wants him to be in pain — actually wincing, in fact — when he hears the prefix to her name (Diary, 4 September). But there it is and he must just try to be brave. As long as the system of knighthood exists so, alas, will there always be knights' wid- ows. They do not 'insist on calling them- selves Lady This or That', as Mr Wilson so courteously puts it, from a whim as he seems to think — the prefix is simply a fact.

Barbara Cole

Heathayne Farm, Colyton, Devon.