Mind your language I STRUCK the ironing-board and cried, `No
more!'
A little letter in the Independent on Sunday had just caught my eye as I was doing the left sleeve of one of my hus- band's shirts. 'When are we going to stop calling anti-abortionists "pro-life"? There are two opposing forces. One is pro-choice; the other is anti-choice.' I ask you!
Clearly both pro-life and pro-choice are terms preferred by people with decided views for propagandistical rea- sons. Whether the terms have become counterproductive is another question. But I can't see there is any doubt that someone who is against abortion is more 'pro-life' (the life of the little crea- ture in its mother's womb) than some- one who doesn't much mind abortion is `pro-choice'.
It is funny how pro-choice has been hijacked to refer specifically to abortion, rather than to refer to support for smoking, drinking, knitting or ethnic cleansing. I'd have thought it was the `pro-choicers' who ought to find a new word. Pro-abortion is not good enough, since not all of them actually want women to have abortions. If we lived in a supermarket, I suppose they would be called abortion friendly.
Now, away from this unpleasant topic, may I point out that the animadversions I made against the Everyman edition of Trollope's Can You Forgive Her? referred to the Everyman paperback published by Dent (controlled by Orion)? Almost incredibly, they have no connection with a firm of practically the same name called Everyman's Library, which produces those nice little hard- backs of standard authors. Both, of course, look back to the original Everyman books with the art nouveau backs.
Another reader, John P. Harris, writes from France with a selected list of misprints from another Trollope pub- lished by Everyman, He Knew He Was Right. They include food people for good people; threads for threats; he aunt for her aunt; her other's for her mother's; to for do. These he attributes to word-pro- cessors, software spell-checkers and a lack of proofreaders.
I think I can put a bet on which Everyman publisher these errors came from. In the meantime Mr David Camp- bell of the hardback Everyman has sent me a copy of their edition of Can You Forgive Her? I haven't had the strength to read all through it again so soon. I think I'll go back to the ironing.
Dot Wordsworth
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