Sin of Sodom
Sir: In the course of a heterosexual lifespan now in all too clear sight of the Biblically- decreed finishing post, it has been my good fortune to know, admire and, yes, to love a number of often very distinguished homosexuals, while the wider circle of affectionate friendship and acquaintance that I continue to enjoy has always in- cluded female as well as male homosex- uals. I am happy to say that not one of them has ever, either in speaking or writing to me, used the until lately delightful and not easily poetically replaceable word 'gay' to indicate their sexual preferences, a subject more often avoided than might be supposed in civilised conversation. I was therefore pleased though not surprised to notice its absence from the characteristically dignified rebuke bes- towed by your admirable and important contributor, the novelist, critic and Inter- national PEN Club President, Mr Francis King, upon what he rightly stigmatised as the 'ignorance and silliness of Roy Ker- ridge's article "Predatory Homosexuals" (8 August).
Certainly the 16 'gays' employed by Mr Adam Mars-Jones as his sole thesaurus alternative to 'homosexual' (score 25) failed to make his in places rather confused answer to Kerridge a whit gayer reading.
Alastair Forbes
1837 Château d'Oex, Switzerland
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