A flash of green feathers in the garden
SIR – I have lived in Cheltenham for over 40 years. Last Saturday, for the very first time, I saw a ring-necked parakeet feeding in the garden.
It therefore seemed a strange coincidence that, the following day, you reported comments made by a zoologist at Cheltenham Science Festival in support of the theory that Britain’s parakeet population took root after the filming of The African Queen during the Fifties. Janet White
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire
SIR – Some of The African Queen was filmed in Uganda at the edges of the forest in Budongo, lying between Masindi (inland) and Butiaba (on Lake Albert). Much to my disappointment, it took place during term time, but I was shown the railway tracks at the edge of the forest where the African Queen was towed through vegetation to simulate its journey through plant-clogged water. After filming, the boat was left at Butiaba, and I spent many happy hours fishing on it, catching huge Nile perch.
My parents lived in a small settlement of five houses, plus a tennis court, close to where the filming took place, and they met the actors and producers.
My mother particularly recalled playing tennis with Katharine Hepburn. Pam Maybury
Bath, Somerset