4 NOVEMBER 1995, Page 32

Pommy arrogance

Sir: It may interest Ms Wordsworth (Mind your language, 7 October) to know that not every person who reads Trollope has also read the Bible, speaks French and knows when Paddington station was opened. Some readers of Trollope speak English as a second or third language and are neither Christians nor train-spotters.

What a shocking idea it is that there are people in the world who are not intimately acquainted with English social history and culture! The Australian academic (whose gravest sin appears to be his or her nation- ality) may have omitted some useful infor- mation but, fortunately for the philistines in Wagga Wagga (there is no hyphen, by the way), Hanoi and Harare, there are some explanatory notes at the end.

Geraldine Perriam

28 Thompson Street, Ormond, Victoria, Australia