23 MARCH 1991, Page 30

Cowardly practice

Sir: I am delighted that Craig Brown (Diary, 2 March) has taken up a cause long dear to my heart, the red uctio ad absurd urn of the epithet 'cowardly' to denigrate actions of which one, quite rightly, may not approve. A corollary of this is the notion that shooting somebody in the back is more heinous than shooting them in the front. It is, on the contrary, a procedure more beneficial to both participants; safer for the one, and more humane for the other, who will not know what hit him.

Bernard Denvir

85 Knatchbull Road, London SE5