Letter: Stranger than fiction how times change

Sir: So Liverpool University is to have a Science Fiction Library and offer a Masters degree in the subject ('A library, Jim, but not as we know it', 11 October). How times change.

Thirty years ago in Liverpool, as I was about to take my O-levels, I had an interview with a careers officer. As an avid reader I said I wanted to be a librarian. She asked me what I read and, on my informing her that I loved science fiction, she laughed at me and said perhaps being a hairdresser was more appropriate.

Despite this negative advice, I have had one successful career in teaching, and now have a second one managing an academic library. I got there with no thanks to the Liverpool Careers Service, and I still read science fiction.

Yours faithfully,

JENNIFER HENLEY

London, W5

11 October