LETTER : Why cool logic eludes the Brits

From Mr John Cundhill

Sir: Returning from two weeks in the Mediterranean to encounter temperatures almost as high in England, I am intrigued by the different approaches to keeping cool when indoors

Mediterranean logic recognises that light is heat and also that from mid-morning to mid-evening the air outside is hotter than the air inside. English sentiment cannot bear to shut out the sun, which is not surprising as we normally see so little of it, and has an obsession with fresh air, derived presumably from the muscular Christian tradition.

Consequently, the Mediterraneans retreat from the sun into cool, if somewhat gloomy, interiors; while the English turn their dwellings into saunas and then complain about the heat.

Yours faithfully,

John Cundhill

London, SW15

4 August