Madam, - It is nice to know that Róisín McAuley (An Irishwoman's Diary, April 25th) thinks the town of Reading, Berkshire has improved since the days of Jerome K. Jerome. He noted in Three Men In A Boat: "The river is dirty and dismal here. One does not linger in the neighbourhood of Reading."
Before Kevin Doyle and Co, whom she mentions, many people knew the town as the home of the Reading Festival and for the local links of Kate Winslet, Kenneth Branagh and Sam Mendes. In any event I find it an agreeable place for the few weeks a year I am there. - Yours, etc,
ARRAN DOWLING HUSSEY, Law Library, Dublin 7.