Guff and golf
Sir: Many of us are obliged by our jobs to write occasional letters, though our exper- tise lies in quite other directions. Then to have our letters judged by the flawless stan- dards of The Spectator in the Unlettered column really is rather tough.
Some Spectator readers have spotted that if they don't like what we have to impart, they can get their own back by sending our letters to The Spectator. In your issue of 14 March, for example, someone was miffed to be told that he was breaking the rules of 'It interrupts the cricket!' his tenancy by putting cat food in the pas- ., sage; in went the Agents' letter. A few weeks back a lady was using the Unlettered column to pour scorn on a personnel man- ager who had told her that she wasn't being called for interview — though I thought the personnel man's letter both apposite and well-written. As for the toy instructions translated from Chinese to English — how well could your Unlettered editor do the reverse, I wonder.
Worse, the very words which invite read-
ers to submit letters are offensive: . illit- erate, crass, ignorant. . .'. What if (say) Golf Monthly asked readers to send photographs of amateur players whose shots were ungainly, clownish, pathetic, rubbish . . and a gleeful Unlettered reader found his picture on page ten?
I think the Unlettered column demeans The Spectator; but if you wish to print this letter in that column, well, go on then — but make it the last, please.
Jasper King
7 Digby Road, Rhos on Sea, Colwyn Bay, Clwyd
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