5 JANUARY 1974, Page 4

U and non-U

Sir: Readers of the current corre s

spoly dence are no doubt aware that Mis Nancy Mitford did not invent the terms U and non-U. In an amusl article she merely developed, tirically, the theme of a more ser'°work by their real inventor. Little can she have anticipated, ltIr doing so, how fatuously it would lated be taken up, extended ad nauseant an often misunderstood, by others. P. F. fle„,skre'i 57 Great Ormond Street, London vv