Letter: Age-old complaint

Sir: Thomas Sutcliffe ('Sixties sister calls the grey army to battle', 13 October) notes that Germaine Greer 'is a bit late arriving on the field of combat'. How many decades is it since W. H. Auden diagnosed the complaint?

At 30 I try to vex my elders,

Past 60 it's the young I hope to trouble.

Yours sincerely,

HOWARD WHITTEN

London, W6