Briefly

LETTERS

l SONIA KHAN says that Gustave Courbet's newly exhibited female nude, the Origin of the World, is hardly titillating or even sensual ("Art lovers reel from the shock of the nude", 2 July). Oh yes it is!

Nicolas Walter, London N1

l ONE OF the photographs in "The Lost London of Cartier Bresson" (Review, 2 July), showed passengers buying tickets at Piccadilly tube station in 1951. The fares displayed on the ticket machines reveal that the cost of travel has increased by one hundred times - at least eight times the general rate of inflation. Can someone please explain?

Henry Law

Brighton, East Sussex

l A "BEAM" award (Matthew ch7, v3) to the Independent on Sunday for "Many employers can't be bothered to respond to applicants who who not read the brief for the job or their own CV" ("Illiterate CVs ...", 2 July) and, in a headline, "imaginery". Whose are the "own goals"?

Do you need a proof-reader?

J B Stokes, Oakham, Rutland

l WHO IS more gullible? Jamie Breman and Sacha Bryan who were stung for a pounds 110 taxi fare from Delhi to Jaipur ("Gullible Britons flee imaginary riots", 2 July) or those who forked out pounds 5m to the Ministry of Defence for study into ballistic missile defences ("Britain builds 'Star Wars' missile attack model", 2 July).

E Kyriakides, Glasgow

e Hatters and the madness thereof (Letters, 2 July). I have always understood that in pursuit of their craft, hatters used quantities of lead, well known for its detrimental effect on the functioning of the brain and thereby behavioural patterns. Madness in a hatter was an occupational hazard.

The Doormouse