20 JANUARY 1996, Page 24

Social climbing

Sir: The only entertaining aspect of Simon Blow's 'Cold hearts and pawned coronets' (13 January) is his self-inflationary view . that he is an aristocrat. Would it be unkind to put the record straight? His paternal grandfather was not an aristocrat but the notorious architect Detmar Blow, who escaped going to prison for his defalcations merely because his employer, the then Duke of Westminster, generously decided not to prosecute him. On his mother's side he is descended from the Tennant family which emerged from plebeian obscurity in the second half of the 19th century.

Uta Champion

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