5 JULY 2003, Page 29

Against the rope

From Mr Peter Leapman Sir: I don't suppose we should blame Paul Johnson for portraying George Orwell as a sort of instinctive Tory (And another thing, 28 June), but at least one of his pieces of evidence is badly flawed. In no sense was Orwell 'quite capable of attending a hanging unperturbed'. If we read the essay to which Mr Johnson is alluding CA Hanging', 1931), we find the following sentences: Till that moment I had never realised what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. I saw the mysteiy, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.'

Peter Leapman

Swansea