Readers’ Letters
Use by next century
SIR: I am rarely moved to put pen to paper but the coincidence of the article on not wasting food (‘Eat what you’re given’) and the Mike Barfield cartoon strip on yoghurt in the November issue reminded me of an experiment I carried out. The results might be of value to the frugally minded of your readers.
Towards the end of 2010, I bought a six-pack of flavoured ‘active’ yoghurts. I kept these in my fridge and ate one every six months after the ‘best before’ date printed on the pot. The last, eaten in February 2014 and three years past its ‘best before’ date, was just as good as if I had eaten it the day I bought it. I have no reason to believe that, had I bought more yoghurts that day in 2010, I could not have extended this experiment indefinitely.
I should point out that this only works if the yoghurts are unopened. Opened yoghurt developed a rather unappealing green crust after a couple of months, even in the fridge.
Steve Garrett, Somerset.
More praise for Priestley
SIR: By all means let’s hear it for John Boynton Priestley (The Old Un’s Diary, October issue and Readers’ Letters, November issue). He was that rare thing, an English writer who wrote about England and its people in the 1930s with real understanding and affection. His novel Angel Pavement is the finest evocation of London office life at that time ever written. His writing was plain, simple (but not simplistic) and without affectation and he was a consummate story-teller. For all these reasons he was, of course, brushed aside by the exalted intellectual literati of the day as ‘secondrate’. Not for us hoi polloi he wasn’t – not by a long shot. We may not be able to deconstruct ‘The Faerie Queene’ but we know real quality when we see it.
G B French, Maidstone.
SIR: I was delighted to read such effusive praise of J B Priestley’s works by Phil Poole (Readers’ Letters, November issue), but was surprised to learn of his difficulty obtaining copies of Priestley’s books. The Special Collections Librarian at the J B Priestley Library at Bradford University may be able to help. She is also a member of the council of the J B Priestley Society, which usually has a collection of good second-hand copies of his work for sale. It also publishes two journals yearly on his work. Her name and address are: Allison Cullingford, Special Collections Librarian, J B Priestley Library, University of Bradford, Bradford, West Yorkshire BD7 1DP.
John Waddington-feather, Shrewsbury.
Hurrah: artists who can draw!
SIR: Laura Gascoigne’s article on Picasso’s ponytail girl and Andrew Lambirth’s article on E H Shepard in your October issue show that these very different artists had one thing in common: both could draw. Picasso’s drawing of Sylvette David reproduced on your front cover and Shepard’s drawings reproduced in Shepard’s War show that each was highly skilled in this art form.
Picasso was supreme at drawing from life but his genius lay in abstracting the essence of what he saw. Shepard also learned to draw from life, and his genius lay in drawing from imagination, especially for children. Each could create exactly what he wanted by the mere use of a pencil or crayon.
Thank you for reminding us of this skill. It is hard to know why it has been so downgraded in recent years. It can give so much scope to an artist and so much pleasure and insight to the viewer.
Nicholas Asprey, London.
Memories of Eros
SIR: Peyton Skipworth (‘The birth of Eros’, September issue) reminded me of something my late husband told me. He was in the Fire Service during the war and fought fires in the city through the Blitz. In a moment of national rejoicing – almost certainly VE Day – one of his fellow firemen climbed onto Eros but was pulled down by a policeman. What was awful was that the statue’s arm came off with him. The poor chap had to pay heavily for the restoration.
This is a second-hand story as we were not married till 1948 and I would love to have it corrected or corroborated.
Mrs Norman Hepple, Richmond, Surrey.