3 AUGUST 2002, Page 28

Lost on the fairway

From Mr R.W. Smith

Sir: East is east, and west is west, and it is the wrong Lothian that your reviewer Ian Dunlop has chosen (Books, 27 July). When playing golf over any of the Gullane courses, I have found that one has to look west to see Arthur's Seat and not all that much of Edinburgh, and east to see Berwick Law and even less of North Berwick; and the Luffness course lies to the west of Gullane.

Is Mr Dunlop's U-turn a typesetter's error, or a mild attack of the infectious condition confusio americana? This seems to thrive in the Scottish climate, attacking many visitors. A few years ago, on the ramparts of Edinburgh Castle, with the view northwards to Fife over the Firth of Forth, I overheard an American address his tourguide with this question: 'Say, fella, is that France across there?'

Bob Smith

Linlithgow, West Lothian