Sir, It is time for the Society of Authors to discuss with the Publishers Association the payment of huge sums to celebrities, television reporters, sportsmen and politicians, whose books prove to be flops. Advance fees, which should be going to bona fide authors and young literary people who need financial help as they attempt to enter a difficult profession, are being flushed away. There should be a limit on these advances, and earnings should come only from sales.

British publishers appear to be bent on ruining English literature with this profligacy and poor judgment.

PETER KINSLEY
London SE15

Sir, While attending my local Anglican church on Christmas Eve I was disappointed to learn that the shepherds were no longer “sore afraid” but were “terrified” and that the “swaddling clothes” were now “bands of cloth”. In the hymns “mean and lowly” had become the “scorned and lowly”.

I’m afraid a little of the Christmas magic was lost.

COLIN SAGAR
Barnoldswick, Lancs

Sir, Charles King-Holford (letter, Dec 26) says that “a current trend is to mix singular pronouns with plural nouns”. But this type of usage has been going on for centuries: you can find it in many English classics.

Does it matter? It might be argued that in written English there should be rules and standards, and this is generally the case: newspapers have their house styles and every type of technical writing has its own conventions. With spoken English there are huge regional variations in usage, which, despite many decades of universal education, show no sign of being ironed out. It would indeed be the sign of a dying language if they were.

PETER BENDALL
Cambridge

Sir, English isn’t dying, it is adapting. If Mr King-Holford surfed the internet for the works of Donne, Shakespeare or any other superstar of English literature, he would discover the secret of survival: evolution.

TOM FOULKES
Fleet, Hants

Sir, Having read Mr King-Holford’s letter I heard my son-in-law gently correcting his two-and-a-half-year-old daughter’s use of “can” instead of “may”.

BRIAN BARTRAM
London N14

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