University challenge
Sir: Andrew Neil is wrong in assuming my description of universities like Glasgow and Aberdeen as redbrick was born of igno- rance (Letters, 6 December). Having con- sidered at length the correct terminology for the various types of university, I eventu- ally followed Anthony Sampson, who called all non-Oxbridge universities redbrick. In successive passages from Anatomy of Britain Today, he wrote, 'Even the Labour Cabinet can claim only three redbrick members, Willie Ross from Glasgow and Fred Peart and Ted Short from Durham. . .'; '"redbrick" ranges from the granite fastness of Aberdeen to the eccen- tric new buildings of Southampton . . . 'and 'In terms of surroundings and architecture, there are different layers of redbrick. There are the big, impersonal city universities like Manchester, Liverpool or Birmingham . . . There are the superior provincials, like Edinburgh or Bristol. . . And there is Lon- don. . . . ' I concede Mr Neil's point on York, but I did distinguish it as plate-glass later in the article.
I think he assumes I went to Oxbridge. I didn't. He is, however, quite correct in implying I know little about Scotland and care less, and am on the whole perfectly happy to be rude about it from London, and from a position of ignorance. Scotland, however, was not the point here.
Alice Miles
Etain, Grand Union Canal, Blomfield Road, London W9
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