8 FEBRUARY 2003, Page 25

From Mr Laurie Stewart Sir: Do you really expect us

to take your taurine correspondent seriously? Tristan Garel-Jones writes that it is 'a place where our proxy, the matador, looks real death in the face, and, in doing so, reminds us, as did Wittgenstein. that only death gives life its meaning'. I was in Ronda about a month ago and found myself unwillingly in that nasty little arena, the bullring. A notice on the wall proclaimed that in 400 years only one matador had lost his life.

Laurie Stewart

London N2