The sound of silence

Sir: Charles Moore is right to draw attention to the deafening silence in the press about the present state of South Africa (Notes, 10 June). Not only has the country descended into frightening levels of violence, but the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study 2021 placed it last of all countries tested, in both reading and comprehension. How long will the ANC ruling elite remain an untouchable holy cow for our press? It is South Africans who suffer most from this implicit censorship.

Margaret Vane

By email

Not cheap, not cheerful

Sir: Emily Rhodes notes that ‘books have never been more beautiful’ (‘Cooking the books’, 10 June). While this may be true of their covers, it is certainly not true of what’s between them. I recently bought a Bodley Head hardback for £20 and an £8.99 Black Swan paperback. Both are printed on floppy grey paper closely resembling bog roll. Both are also Penguin Random House imprints and proudly proclaim that the paper has been sourced sustainably. It would seem another instance of the obsession with net zero leading to reduced quality.

John Mounsey

Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire

JK is OK

Sir: Rod Liddle doesn’t seem to understand sexuality (‘On the hallowed terf’, 10 June). There’s no contradiction in J.K. Rowling’s support for a biological definition of both women and lesbians. Lesbians deny nothing about their biology – just insist that it’s normal for a consistent sample of biological women to prefer sex with women. The Kinsey reports of 1948 and 1953 shocked America by showing 37 per cent of men and 13 per cent of women had had some overt homosexual experience. Thank goodness Rod hasn’t read them -– he’d be appalled.

Phillip Hodson

Psychotherapist and sex therapist

Tetbury, Gloucestershire

WHO’s in charge

Sir: Christopher Snowdon makes a thought-provoking case for leaving the World Health Organisation (WHO), aspirational though that may be (‘Mission creep’, 10 June).

Mr Snowdon correctly identifies that the draft Pandemic Preparedness Treaty makes no mention of non-pharmaceutical interventions such as lockdowns, quarantines and travel bans, but he has not spotted the amendments to the International Health Regulations which would endow the WHO with new powers to order precisely those measures. Indeed, the WHO’s own expert review committee has described the amendments as introducing ‘unprecedented obligations’ for member states to follow when the next pandemic strikes.

Ben Kingsley

Strategic Legal Affairs, UsForThem

Cambridgeshire

Much ado about something

Sir: In her review of my Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies, Emma Smith chastises me for questioning the authorship, while also criticising me for not identifying an alternative candidate (Books, 3 June).

Professor Smith seems to have misunderstood the book. It’s a portrait of a fractious, muddled controversy by a journalist surveying the history of the debate. My aim was to report on it, not to solve it. I let the reader grapple with the many gaps, inconsistencies and problems without being told what to think.

Historians recognise that debates about the past are a fundamental feature of historical inquiry. Shakespeare scholars, by contrast, resort to accusations that those with different views are spreading disinformation. The authorship question is a compelling subject that has engaged diverse writers and thinkers. Yet in her defence of orthodoxy, Professor Smith deploys breezy misrepresentations and belittling smears. She concludes by wondering ‘Who cares?’ about the author anyway. This show of indifference has long been the last line of defence for scholars who otherwise seem to care quite a lot. No one has to care, of course, but a scholar who doesn’t has abandoned all pretence to scholarship.

Elizabeth Winkler

Washington DC

Good and Bader

Sir: I’ve just read Douglas Murray’s article in which he quoted Ben Macintyre describing Douglas Bader as ‘a monster… brutally unpleasant to anyone he considered of a lower socioeconomic order’ (‘How to dismantle history’, 10 June).

Soon after the war, I was serving at my regimental depot when a young recruit fell from a platform and lost both legs to an incoming train. Not surprisingly, his spirits were very low and he did not want to live like that. Douglas Bader made several visits to persuade him that it was possible to have a good and productive life with artificial legs – and gave him the determination to live. That does not seem to me to equate with Ben Macintyre’s description.

Christopher Piggins

Salisbury

The rule of 3

Sir: Deborah Ross had never heard of Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Cinema, 10 June). Nor had the Today programme interviewer when it discussed the film she reviewed. Listeners to Radio 3 have no such problem. His music is often played there, and he is fully appreciated for his talent without tedious references to diversity. The conclusion is clear. Stop listening to the Today programme and tune in to Radio 3, the remaining jewel in the BBC’s crown.

Prof Robin Jacoby

Hethe, Oxfordshire

Hammers of the gods

Sir: How poignant that Jeremy Clarke’s beloved West Ham should clinch their first European title in 58 years. Your late, great scribe clearly has friends in high places.

Will Holt

Enochdhu, Perthshire

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