The British Library’s genealogical witch-hunt

sir – If we go back the 12 generations that, conservatively, separate Ted Hughes from his ancestor Nicholas Ferrar (“British Library throws book at Ted Hughes over slave trade link”, November 22), the poet has, in Ferrar’s generation, some 2,048 greatgrandparents. One of these is Ferrar.

This is a level of witch-hunting by genealogy that makes reading the entrails of chickens in ancient Rome look like a beacon of enlightenment.

The fact that this lunacy comes from those who control one of the world’s great institutions of free thinking and scholarship should do more than concern us.

Michael Russell

Wicklow, Ireland

sir – As someone who has been proud to work within our once incomparable public and national library system, I look with dismay at the increasingly hectoring statements emanating from the British Library in its ill-thoughtout attempt to become “an actively anti-racist organisation”.

We were always taught that the very essence of our service was one of neutrality. As such, libraries have played a major role in democratic debate and discussion.

The British Library has now turned this principle on its head. The bewildering addition of Ted Hughes to the list of those with supposedly racist connections is farcical, morally and practically wrong, and shows that this great institution has lost its way. Robert Wand

Lytham, Lancashire

sir – Nowhere in the British Library Act 1972, as far as I’m aware, is there any statutory obligation that the British Library should propagate a historical, political or social issue outside its primary function as a legal deposit library for public research purposes. Duncan Mcara

Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire