Letter: Happy days

I THINK Susie Orbach's memory is playing her tricks ("Emotion without tears", 26 November). As a fellow classmate at the North London Collegiate School, I can remember many Jewish pupils; I would estimate about one-third of us all.

My own background was far from posh and probably a lot less well-heeled than Susie's. Nevertheless I cannot recall encountering any of the snobbishness she describes. Like most of the old girls of that era I remember with particular affection and gratitude the distinguished headmistress, Dame Kitty Anderson, a down-to-earth, warm and humorous Yorkshire woman whose personality suffused the regime and culture of the school, which most of us found both humane and civilised.

Janet Russell

Tollesbury

Essex