22 JUNE 1996, Page 23

Sir: Never mind what the contributors look like. What a

lot of readers wish to settle is Dot Wordsworth's age. She has clearly got a lot of words inside her mind and may therefore be rather old. On the other hand, she has a youngish child and is rather waspish. So my guess is she is thirty-two years, four months and ninety-nine days today. May I suggest that you run a sweep- stake, taking 10 per cent for yourselves by way of admininstration charges and accept- ing that anyone who is aware of this compe- tition and who knows her identity would be sufficiently uncaddish not to enter.

Simon Cawkwell

28 Trevor Place, London SW7