Sir: Robert Hanks (Television Review, 13 April) is right that modern children look too well fed to depict the pinched orphans of Dickens's imagination. However he is wrong to include Gabriel Thomson (young Pip in Great Expectations). The convict in the churchyard described Pip as having fat cheeks. The Gargery household did not go short of food - Dickens provides a mouth-watering description of that Christmas dinner and Pip stole brandy, cheese and a pork pie to give to the convict.
LYS GABLE
Hereford
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