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Backing Black
Sir: Charles Moore is right to point out that the world’s media have been ‘greedily clamouring’ for a guilty verdict in the case of Conrad Black (The Spectator’s Notes, 16 June). It seems very odd — to say the least — that so many journalists should apparently wish to deny the presumption of innocence to anyone, let alone to someone who was an excellent newspaper proprietor, including of The Spectator.
William Shawcross
St Mawes, Cornwall
At war with women
Sir: Further to M.R.D Foot’s review (Books, 23 June), I should like to add a note about Joan Astley, now in her 97th year and as delightful as ever. I had the good fortune to meet Joan Astley while researching my book on the history of women war reporters. She told me that when Eve Curie, the glamorous journalist daughter of Marie Curie, arrived to report for the Herald Tribune, she was invited to dinner with Joan’s husband — the late Lt Col Philip Astley, then director of army press relations. In preparation, Curie spent the day before in Cairo having her hair done and her nails painted. Randolph Churchill, then in charge of British propaganda in Cairo, met Curie at the dinner and took it upon himself to accompany her to the Advanced Army Headquarters. Astley was furious. He wrote to the War Office: ‘I am sorry to say that having successfully battled for a long time against allowing women into the desert, a precedent was unfortunately set by the arrival of Mlle Eve Curie.’ Astley went on: ‘The situation was most awkward for both officers and other ranks with a woman in their midst living under open conditions which of necessity exist in the desert.’
The problem was, as ever, how to answer the call of nature in the desert. ‘In mobile warfare it is generally impossible to make adequate latrines,’ wrote Astley. As a result of Eve Curie’s visit, ‘at least three hundred men were unmoved for three days,’ he told the War Office, prompting the following reply: ‘Find your picture of unmoved men most moving.’
Thanks to Joan Astley, we now know the answer to why women reporters were not officially allowed to report on desert warfare in the second world war.
Anne Sebba
Richmond, Surrey
Bad form
Sir: As one who signed the candidates’ book for Andrei Navrozov, might I apologise to Brooks’s members for having done so? His views on the smoking ban are immaterial, just as his written style can possibly be excused because English is not his first language — or, it seems, any of them — but to describe the hall porters as ‘surly’ is truly disgraceful, when everyone knows they are the greatest gentlemen in the Club.
As for describing our library as ‘bindings by the yard’ — sitting on the Library Committee, as I have for some years, I am proud of the fact that every single book there has been chosen carefully for its appeal to our members, decisions which are reviewed regularly. (Members will hardly lament that Mr Navrozov’s own works didn’t make the cut.)
Andrew Roberts
London SW1
Feathered friends
Sir: I have been very interested in the recent correspondence about robins (Letters, 16 June). Many years ago, my mother was befriended by a robin which constantly followed her around the garden.
One day it landed on her hand, where it deposited a fat wriggling worm. It then flew to a nearby branch and watched her, hoping, she supposed, to see her eating the worm. Not wanting to offend the robin she sought to convey that its gift was so generous she would keep it for later, but she felt embarrassed at being incapable of showing appropriate appreciation.
Louise Hertford
Alcester, Warwickshire
Learn to love them
Sir: Michael Henderson is wrong to call for the removal of the skateboarders from the South Bank (Arts, 9 June).
The skateboarders complement the life and general hustle and bustle of the South Bank. As a family with varied interests, we often enjoy a day taking in the Tate Modern, a play at the National Theatre and lunch or supper in one of the restaurants nearby. However, for our 12-year-old, nothing quite beats the opportunity to admire the skill of the skateboarders and the colour of the graffiti art. Not to everyone’s taste, I admit, but if Henderson were to broaden his mind a little, he would see that the skateboarders are now as much a part of the ‘South Bank experience’ as the other arts ‘venues’.
Michael Woodward
Hitchin, Hertfordshire
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