Hate mail : LETTER

Diana Chapman takes Anthony Powell's reference to Dorothy Hodgkin as a "hag" to indicate that "the majority of men" detest women.

I would like to know how she would interpret the loud and unambiguous insults which it is possible for any relatively less than attractive middle- aged man to receive from such teenage girls as he may have the misfortune to encounter on their night out in the city centre.

When I am assaulted in the street by such unsolicited observations as to my lack of appeal as "that's disgusting" and "ughrr, innit awful", I don't take this to indicate that even these young women, let alone the majority, detest all men.

alex cannon

Bristol