25 AUGUST 1973, Page 5

Paine statue

Sir: Richard Luckett is unjustifiably unkind on the subject of Sir Charles Wheeler's statue of Tom Paine. Gilded all over, it is a splendid folly, a piece of quirky Englishness, or English quirkiness, which it is well worth a visit to Thetford to see. It may not correspond very closely to what we know of its subject, but it is great fun, enlivening, with appropriate irony, the sober facade of the King's House, in front of which it stands, and indeed the whole street. Surely, even the .Councillor who resigned over the decision to raise a statue to Thetford's enfant terrible must now be reconciled, and grateful to the Thomas Paine Society of America for its gift to the town.

Sylvia Haymon 13 Beaumont Street, London WI