LETTER : Am I chattering?

Sir: If you know the answer to Clive Stein's question ("What is wrong with being middle-class?"; Letters, 13 March) could you explain the term "chattering classes"? Who are these dreadful people? As a middle- aged, middle-class, professional woman who presumes to be interested in social and political issues and, worse still, talks with her friends and family about them, I have a horrible suspicion that I may be among their number.

Janet Russell

Tollesbury, Essex