28 AUGUST 1982, Page 17

The climbing runner

Sir: I appreciate there may be more world- shattering events than the present discus- sion about the derivation of runner-beans. Simon Courtauld wrote (Notebook, 7 August) that no European country used the name 'stick-beans' to describe them. But this is not so. My wife, who comes from Mark Brandenburg (the country in and around Berlin) says that she has always known them as Stangenbohnen — Stangen meaning stick.

P. Bailey

Northcote Road, West Horsley, Leatherhead, Surrey