Sir, – I recently visited two Dublin bookshops known for their knowledgeable staff, looking for a copy of The Ballad of Reading Gaol. Neither assistant I spoke to had heard of it, knew who wrote it or that it was a poem. However, one of them had heard of Oscar Wilde, when I named the author. A visit to a secondhand bookshop was more rewarding, the assistant knowing what it was and that the author was a certain C.3.3. Indeed he had some copies by that author, but unfortunately given they were early edition, late 19th-century versions, they were significantly out of my price range for a stocking filler. – Yours, etc,
SANDRA MATHEWS,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.