Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – It is to be hoped that Ashley Husband Powton’s preparation for her essays at university is more rigorous than that which she undertook before framing her polemic against St Andrews University for distributing, free of charge to first year students, books that had been listed for the Man Booker Prize.
Had she troubled to check this year’s selected book Ms Powton would have learned that it is ”A long, long way” by Irish author Sebastian Barry.
The book deals with the themes of war and suffering and its story is accessible to readers with no experience of war, nor even of life in Ireland in the early 20th century.
She is, of course, entitled to her views about the Man Booker but it is puzzling that a student of languages might believe that an author’s ethnicity should be taken into account when compiling a long or short-list for the Booker.
Some might argue that the ethnicity of an author was incidental or immaterial, for it is the function of great or good literature to make universal themes accessible to all readers and the ability to do this should transcend the author’s ethnicity.
If a shortlist was composed with reference to ethnicity, would the next stage be equal representation according to gender or sexual orientation of author?
Susan Pringle.East House,44 Seafield Road,Broughty Ferry.
These charges are counter-productive
Sir, – When will the dinosaurs who are proposing the introduction of blanket parking charges at our local stations and park-and-ride facilities wake up to the realisation that parking charges are almost always counter-productive?
Of course people will do whatever they can to avoid them, be it park in other places locally or drive to wherever they may be going. I believe that we pay too much already to drive our cars, paying to park them as well is an anathema.
Parking discs as found in Yorkshire and southern Scotland work very well as has recently been reported, at less cost and hassle to both the drivers and the authorities.
Let’s also notice that Perth, which has high parking charges, has town centre businesses closing for lack of customers (and those who are still open are complaining vociferously about shortage of customers) while Cowdenbeath, which has no parking charges, is always busy.
Scrap parking charges!
Jim Alcock.Bowood House,Cleish,Kinross.
Conifer hedge in poor shape
Sir, – I am always intrigued when I read on regular occasions about Baxter Park being of a Victorian standard when it comes to the quality of work carried out.
Yet I am amazed to see the state of the conifer hedge which surrounds the bowling greens adjacent to Arbroath Road, on the south side of Baxter Park.
In clear view, is sambucus (elderberry), clearly flourishing, directly out the centre of the conifer hedge in several places along its length.
Any decent gardener worth their salt would tell anyone that this is an absolute non-starter.
It is also very puzzling just why the north-east corner of the hedge directly beside the tennis courts is left to grow wild.
It most certainly detracts from what used to be a very well maintained conifer hedge.
Ronnie Mcintosh.Baluniefield,Dundee.
It is simply untrue
Sir, – I recommend that Norman Wood (Letters, September 12) follows the advice of the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland which explains on its website why Christians must not celebrate the birth of Christ on December 25.
The Church points out that many people are aware the origins of Christmas lie in the pre-Christian pagan observance of the winter solstice.
It was only in the 4th century AD that the Church of Rome introduced the idea of a mid-winter ceremony as a way of making Christianity more attractive to pagans and as a way of assimilating pagan traditions into the Christian faith.
It further points out that, as the actual date of Christ’s birth is disputed, it is wrong to invent a date, adding that: ”Christ never intended the wondrous event of his birth to be associated with pagan rituals or transformed into an annual festivity.”
As with the date of the Saviour’s birth, much of what people associate with Christmas is simply untrue.
Alistair McBay.Lawmuirview,Methven.
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