Skip to my loo

IWAS interested to see that the word ‘toilet’ is now considered acceptable, at least by Boris Johnson

(Property comment, February 23). The more subtle ‘loo’ is supposedly French in origin, from lieu, the place it was impolite to mention. As for ‘bathroom’, that cross-atlantic euphemism reminds me of the story of an American girl visiting her new boyfriend’s parents’ country house. On asking for the bathroom, she was shown to exactly that—sans loo. Athletic and undaunted, she climbed up on the pedestal washbasin to relieve herself, only to find it wasn’t attached to the wall, the whole thing crashing down beneath her. History does not relate if she became one of those American heiresses who helped to save the estate from inheritance taxes.

Stephen Pollock-hill, Hertfordshire