Letter of the week Going full throttle with Betjeman

MY thanks to COUNTRY LIFE for alerting me to Edward Fox as Sir John Betjeman in Sand in the Sandwiches (‘Putting poetry in motion’, July 5)—as a result, we managed to get tickets for a matinée.

Betjeman and I once had a word, when I was motoring correspondent of the London Evening Standard. The phone rang: ‘Mr Morton? Betjeman here. Would I be correct in thinking that the accelerator of a motorcar is known as the throttle?’ I assured him that it was and, in due course, Meditation on the A30 appeared, concerning an angry and impatient pipe-smoking driver who comes to grief on a corner. Betjeman rhymed ‘throttle’ with ‘dottle’, but he’s to be forgiven for allowing me a minuscule contribution to English poetry. Ian Morton, Wiltshire The writer of the letter of the week will win a bottle of Pol Roger Brut Réserve Champagne