Sprouting
Sir: 'There is nothing necessarily wrong with beards,' says Charles Moore (24 September), but 'men with beards In modern England are trying to saY something'. What nonsense! Of course there is nothing wrong with beards — all men have them, after all — and those who don't cut them off are not necessarily trying to say anything more than those who do, in modern England or at any other time and place. In my own case, I eventually decided that shaving every day was so unpleasant and unnecessary that I would ignore the patronising and prejudiced reactions of people like Charles Moore, but I was not and am not trying to say anything. Similar considerations apply to men wearing ties, and suits or women wearing make-up and skirts, or to both sexes wearing hats and gloves in the old days. People who accept such conventions must accept that people who ignore them may not be saying anything but may be merely trying to live their own lives in their own way — though
saying.
Nicolas perhaps saying something worth Nicolas Walter
88 Islington High Street, London NI
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