Going South

SIR – I have been amused by the debate about where the North of England begins (Letters, November 11).

For a purebred Northumbrian schoolboy in the 1950s, anything beyond Darlington was getting a bit too far into the “soft Sooth”. However, after a 53-year absence I did have to take a dialect-refresher course on my return there.

Edward Cartner

Alnwick, Northumberland

SIR – I was brought up in Whitehaven,