Politicians’ tastes

SIR – Sir Richard Livingstone, the great educationalist, advanced in his

Education for a World Adrift (1943) the argument for showcasing examples of the “first rate”, be they in the arts, music, science, medicine or literature. Such enterprise vaults our culture to higher levels.

It is depressing, then, that so many contemporary politicians seek to do the opposite, quite unlike Harold Macmillan (Letters, February 23). On a number of occasions, for instance, I have spotted political figures attending performances at the Royal Opera House trying to pretend that they are not present. Dr Millan Sachania Headmaster, Immanuel College Bushey, Hertfordshire

SIR – That Harold Macmillan apparently read Aeschylus – almost certainly his chilling trilogy of tragedies, the Oresteia – in the trenches (Letters, February 23) might suggest that he mused: “Things could be worse. I could have been born into the House of Atreus, with its litany of revenge killings.”

Maybe that is a good enough reason to read him today. There are many excellent translations available. Gareth Burnell

Head of classics, Beeston Hall School West Runton, Norfolk

SIR – Harold Macmillan read Aeschylus in the trenches. My father took the less demanding Mediaeval Latin Lyrics by Helen Waddell on his Greyhound-class submarine to the Pacific theatre.

Waddell’s English translations are as good as, or even better, than the Latin originals, and the sadly out-of-print Penguin Classic can even make standing in the Tube bearable. Giles Rowe London SW12