Letter:Firm hand of absurdity

Sir: I certainly slapped each of my three sons when they were young ("Blair is sorry for spanking children", 6 June).

Of course, most of the time I found they wanted to act in a sensible and thoughtful way, and this would normally be managed by discussion between parents and children where there was any lack of clarity. But I also felt it would be valuable if they had some personal experience of the milder historical absurdities of human development, so smacked them each on one occasion.

TREVOR J BROWN

Newbury,

Berkshire