How right I was
Sir: It would have been interesting to learn from Jeremy Paxman CA little local diffi- culty', 13 August) how 12 inner city primary schoolchildren would pass the time of day (or night) during their summer holidays in Turville, that tiny village jewel set in the Chiltern Hills, with no cinema and abso- lutely no facilities for youthful fun and games.
That was the question Alistair Home repeatedly put to the Reverend Paul Nicol- son, the moving spirit behind the scheme, and he never got a satisfactory answer. Just to lodge them in the disused old school- house, and trust that they would benefit from the idyllic rural surroundings, seemed a lovely idea but scarcely realistic, given the recreational tastes of most young people in and out of the inner cities.
Perhaps John Mortimer and Jeremy Pax- man, who have houses in the neighbour- hood and who strongly supported the scheme, were going to have the children over to supper or croquet or something, but neither of them have been nearly as forth- coming with such offers as they have been with criticisms of Alistair Home.
Right from the start I advised Alistair Home not to oppose this scheme, daft as it was, since he would unquestionably become the target for much ill-informed abuse. Bet- ter to put up with any nuisance caused by bored inner city children than to make ene- mies of such powerful neighbours as John Mortimer and Jeremy Paxman. How right I was as last week's characteristically sneer- ing article by Mr Paxman made all too clear.
Sir Peregrine Worsthome
The Old Rectory, Hedgerley, Buckinghamshire
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