Anglo-Saxon simplicity
Sir: As a Northamptonian born and bred, now dragging out my days in bitter exile among the snarling tradesmen, third-world boutiquiers and prancing poseurs of the Smoke, I must register my resentment at Nicholas Coleridge's insult (Diary, 12 January) to my home county.
It is true that the people of North- amptonshire do not often draw up their recipes from the diaries of Jacobean clergy- men; certainly we do not go in much for chevre, chaume, or delicatessens; fashion editors are pretty thin on the ground in Kettering and Raunds; and there is not much call for models in Wellingborough. Still, we are honest Christian English men and women, whose thrift and industry provide the dividends which pay for Mr Coleridge's country house weekends. We do not need any instruction from the restaurant lizards of Chelsea, and if we needed it we should not take it. If Mr Coleridge does not like the food that satisfies us, let him withdraw to France or Italy, where he will find the natives very ready to make a living by pandering to well-heeled refugees from Anglo-Saxon simplicity.
Giles Mathews
Flat 33, Jenner House, Hunter Street, London WC1
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