Letter: The young know about a different history

Sir: I applaud Angela Lambert's hours of 'provocative talk' on deck during her holiday afloat, but I wonder whether the good Turkish food (or the poorer wine) may have blurred the thinking. Her 'symposium' concluded that today's young could recall little that occurred more than a decade ago (be it biblical, Shakespearean or the last war).

Ms Lambert does exclude from 'most young people . . . the thoughtful and the diligent'. That is rather a lot. Has she never seen at our many museums and castles, stately homes and galleries (excellently presented these days to attract the young) the crowds of schoolchildren excitedly enjoying (and remembering) what they see?

And if Ms Lambert were to visit our local girls' high school, she would learn not only to read aloud in the original language Homer's Odyssey but also to translate it.

Yours faithfully,

LESLIE F. CHURCHILL

Spalding, Lincolnshire