Nine years ago, when I started writing here, I had an idea it might lead to writing in newspapers and magazines; perhaps a regular column.
In the event I do appear sometimes in The Times, The Financial Times and The Spectator – in their Letters columns. The Times publishes about 5,000 letters a year (I suppose it receives ten times that number) and has published an anthology of letters published in 2023. “Decidedly absurd, and always entertaining, revel in the very best letters to The Times. From umbrella protocol at the Coronation to growing cress in lunar soil, this collection lets you in on more than a few inside jokes from one of Britain’s longest running correspondences.” And it includes one of mine.
BOUNTIES OUTFOXED
Sir, Further to Peter Saunders’s letter (“Bullfinch decree”, Mar 17), there is a more recent example of government bounties. In Ireland in the 1970s a bounty was paid for killing foxes. In the Republic the tongue was needed as evidence; in Northern Ireland the brush. This lack of cross-border co-ordination was lucrative to fox hunters near the border.
Christopher Bellew
London W6
And one from the current edition of The Spectator.
Tie minded
Sir: Charles Moore, unusually, fell into error when he wrote of ‘men with Guards ties’ (Notes, 27 July). For some five years women have been serving – and the tie is a Brigade tie.
Christopher Bellew
London W6
I hoped to finish with one from The Times today but no cigar.