Letter: A silly happy ending

Sir: Your Diary entry (30 June) rightly criticises the ending to Ken Russell's Lady Chatterley, but omits to note that in the second and best version of the novel, Connie and Mellors separate with little more than the hope of ultimate reunion.

Lawrence's inability to force his characters to the conclusion he desired compelled him three times to rewrite and ultimately to destroy his own creation, but the original still exists in print under the silly and inappropriate title John Thomas and Lady Jane.

This was the version on which I based my original screenplay for the project - perhaps sadly abandoned, like Lawrence's more truthful text, for that ludicrous happy ending.

Yours faithfully,

KEN TAYLOR

Gwithian, Cornwall