1 NOVEMBER 1968, Page 27

Letter to a bureaucrat

Sir: I am sorry to read, in your issue of 18 October, that so informed a person, and so delightful a writer, as Strix should support the use of the word 'writing-paper' to describe the paper on which we write letters. The word was made fashionable by a very readable, but not always profound, female writer, but writing- paper may be anything from foolscap with printed lines to the tiny pads which sit beside domestic telephones to take messages about butchers and bridge.

I use the word 'letter-paper,' which describes what is meant, and I am pleased to find on now looking it up that I have the support of the OED.