LETTER : Top table manners

Sir: Is England the only country where you can immediately tell a person's class origins (reports, 18 April) by the way they hold their knife and fork? The clenched fists of the worker, presumably to cut impossibly tough cheap meat. The delicacy of the lower middle class, knife and fork as quill pens lightly to cut through ham salad Sunday teas. The confident firm handling of the middle classes, able to cope with any number of Islington restaurant styles. What of the aristocracy? Because of the class system I have been unable to test my theory at this level.

Andrew Power

London N17