Sir, – I really enjoyed Eileen Battersby's very warm and personal tribute to the late Doris Lessing (News Agenda, November 18th). My favourite Lessing anecdote is how she rejected John Major's invitation to the appellation of "Dame". Replying to Major's private secretary, she wrote, "Dame, Dame of what?" adding that when young she had done her best to undo that bit of the British empire she found herself in, old Southern Rhodesia. She wrote, "Surely there is something unlikeable about a person, when old, accepting honours from an institution she attacked when young?" A true lady of principle. – Yours, etc,
CORMAC MEEHAN,
Main Street,
Bundoran, Co Donegal.