From Mr Charles Gowlland Sir: I read with considerable interest
Leah McLaren's review of the shortcomings of English men's courting skills, in which I dimly recognised myself as 'Nigel'. It can only be assumed that Leah's failure to comprehend the intricacies of dating Englishstyle is because she has only recently landed on our shores. Leah has accorded me an undue honour in describing our two encounters as 'dates'. In the first, I was merely attempting to comfort a new arrival to London, homesick for the social wastes of Toronto, by taking her to see a four-hour Inuit art-house film. It did at least have subtitles. In the second, my dishes were as misconstrued as my intentions, with the tarte tatin recalled as plum flan.
In matters romantic, the adroitness of most English men is such that, when they make a pass at someone, the recipient knows about it.
Charles 'Nigel' Gowlland
London W12
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