29 AUGUST 1952, Page 18

Prunophobes, Prunophiles

Snt,—The last word on prunes was written by Virginia Woolf in A Room of One's Own: "Prunes and custard," she wrote, describing dinner in hall at a women's college, " followed. And if anyone com- plains that prunes, even when mitigated by custard, are an uncharitable vegetable (fruit they are not), stringy as a miser's heart and exuding a fluid which might run in a miser's veins, he should reflect that there are people whose charity embraces even the prune."— Yours faithfully, H. J. FAIRLIE. 54 Taylor Avenue, Kew, Surrey.