Let Thora chatter, we love her

Yowl WRrEER Nick Thomas needs to be taken to task for the erroneous impression he leaves after his review of Thora Hird's new autobiography 'Is It Thora? (page 6, 21st June). As publishers of this hook HarperCollins Religious feels that Mr Thomas's inaccurate portrayal of the relationship between Dame Thora and ourselves needs to be set in context.
Mr Thomas may not have personally liked the conversational, unpretentious approach taken by Dame Thom-thousands do, as sales of her previous bestselling books and continued enor mous popularity of her television programmes testify. But his personal opinion is not an excuse for such an abusive attack on the genesis of this book.
To put Mr Thomas into the picture: Thora herself, chose the collaborator, Liz Barr. Ms Barr is a long-time colleague of Dame Thora, having worked as a producer and scriptwriter on many of Thora's BBC programmes and indeed, previous books. If Mr Thomas had met Thora or read any of her recent interviews in other newspapers, he would have certainly heard her freely admit that she feels many people relate to her best through the conversational style she has long used.
The initiative for the book's approach could in no way be said to arrive through the publishers' "cynical and insulting attitude" as your reviewer blithely puts it. It was a normal exercise in good author/publisher relations. It is your reviewer who is being cynical by suggesting otherwise.
Murray White, Senior Editor, Fount Books.
Editor's note: Mr Thomas stands by his views
AND MOREOVER...
IF POPE JOHN Paul II is considering lifting the 1512 excommunication order on Luther, then he should first lift that incurred by Archbishop Lefebvre in 1988, for surely, in an ecumenical climate, it is a very great scandal to have fellow Roman Catholics excommunicated simply because of their fear of the spread of modernism within the Church. And for him, expecially scandalous, as this schism occurred during his papacy. In any case, the differences between us and our brother and sister Catholics in the Society of Pius X, are micro
scopic compared with those between us and our fellow Christians in the Lutheran Churches.
PG Allen Bristol
HAVING DONE MY bit, in my nursing days, for our protests about that insult to our profession the so-called "Nurse of the Year" competition,' I was even more shocked to hear that we now have a "Preacher of the Year".
Imagine my delight, then, on finding from the report on your front page (14 June) that this particular competition is suffering from a lack of entries. Long may it remain so!
Rosalind Byrne Surbiton, Surrey
BLESSED ARE THE peace makers for theirs is the glory of Heaven. I would ask the IRA: what will it take to stop the sacrifice of innocent lives? What
will it take to stop the anger, hatred and fear from controlling lives? Margaret Catherine Heath Grasmere
GARY IS JUST seven years old and has terminal cancer. His ambition is to be included in the Guinness Book of Records for the hrgest collection of business cards. We would be very grateful if readers could send a business card to the fcllowing address: Gary Richards
38 Selby Road, Carshalton Surrey, GUI 1LD