LETTER:Silence with style

From Professor Raymond Levy

Sir: Wendy Holden (Life, 22 March) is clearly a beginner when it comes to the world of ear-plugs. Earex Universal "the Rolls Royce of ear-plugs"? For the real connoisseur, only the French "boules quies'' will do - as originally worn by Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir and other literati, it was the only way students and writers could get their work done in noisy Paris cafs.

Even though the traditional art deco metal box was abandoned for a much duller plastic one over 25 years ago, the pharaonic logo has been maintained. Unlike the newfangled foam variety, their pink wax lovingly wrapped in a thin layer of cotton wool is really the only thing that will block off unwanted voices, both normal and pathological.

Yours sincerely,

RAYMOND LEVY

Section of Old Age Psychiatry

Institute of Psychiatry

London, SE5