It's like working in a museum being in charge of an opera house

It's like working in a museum, being in charge of an opera house. "Can't stand the stuff myself.""But surely you ...""My dear boy, you must never expect the chap at the top to like what he's in charge of or even have faith in it Most archbishops don't believe in God. Most opera is concerned with the triumph of skulduggery over virtue - indeed, if it were not for the invention of the happy ending, it would all be - and this can't help getting to you in the end. Do you like opera, Kington?"Startled by the unexpected question, I had to admit that what little I had heard of it did not tempt me to repeat the experience, and that I preferred music on the whole."Well said!" said the director of the ROH. Another week, I remember, collectors all over London were sent out flags wrongly marked "Fight the Children Fund", but very few people actually noticed."Why do you need to adopt these underhand methods?" I once asked the director of the opera house."Well, it's partly because we have little choice, and partly because when you live in the world of opera as much as I do, you become infected with the tawdry and immoral twists and turns in the plots. I told her that it was all organised by the National Mixed Grill Research Unit, which seemed to satisfy her. In the case of medical causes, they feel sorry for themselves Nobody feels sorry for opera.

So we have to adopt camouflage."I must have collected thousands of pounds for the opera in this way, though occasionally I pushed my luck, as when an elderly lady asked me why my tin was marked "National Liver Week" but my flags were marked "Help Kidney Research". In the case of disaster funds, they feel sorry for the starving and the homeless. So he had decided to hide the collection of funds behind a facade of medical respectability."I had no choice, Kington," he once told me "The British will only give to people they feel sorry for. The chorus of horror which has greeted the pounds 55m gift from the National Lottery to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden has taken me nostalgically back to the time when I was living in London and quite heavily involved in raising money for the very same opera house. Almost every weekend I used to appear on a local street corner carrying a tin and a tray, shaking the tin and offering the tray to passers-by so that they could take a flag or a sticker. The tin and the flags were usually marked "British Blindness Week" or "Help The Aged" or "Fight Polio", but whatever was on the tin, the money always went to the opera house. This was due to an ingenious discovery by the then director of the opera house that people like giving to good medical causes but they don't like giving to the arts.He had actually experimented with having collectors stand around with tins marked "British Opera Week", "Help the Tone Deaf" and "Fight Philistinism", and had found to his chagrin but not his surprise that nobody gave anything, except to the tin marked "Help the Tone Deaf", which they took to be a sort of medical appeal. John RoyceGuildhall Chambers,Michael RoachAlbion ChambersBristol26 July.

We hope at least the record is set straight.Yours faithfully,R. Happily, at the end of the first day's evidence at trial, the defendants submitted to judgment and their claim against Mr Deacon was dismissed. It was proved he was in no way at fault.The Deacon family have sadness enough coming to terms with this tragedy without the suggestion that daughter was suing father They have shown great courage. It was the defendants who blamed her father in a "third party" action. We always made it clear she did not blame her father in any way. Your article "Living dangerously in our dreams" (26 July) alleges that she also sued her father and that she and her legal advisers "have clearly gone too far" Emphatically, she did not sue her father. Her claim for damages was brought against the organisers of the race, the British Flag Carnival Club. She had been walking with her family along a trail in the Quantocks.

Sir: We acted for Gemma Deacon, the bright young girl who was severely injured when a competitor in a mountain bike race crashed into her. In retrospect, I wonder whether the headlines and extensive TV coverage were celebrating the Queen Mother's recovery or merely the fact that for once an OAP managed to get her operation done on schedule. Yours faithfully,Jack LiebeskindRadlett,Hertfordshire22 July. However, on the day she returned to Clarence House, my wife's 83-year-old grandmother had her cataract operation postponed for the second time as the surgeon was "unavailable". Sir: I rejoiced with the rest of the nation last week watching the Queen Mother return home safely after her cataract operation.

There is also a clear Third World parallel with Dr Kathleen Kiernan's finding that girls who do badly at school are four times more likely to become teenage mothers than those who do well. In one study, conducted in a cross- section of countries and reported in the 1994 State of the World's Children report, the average number of children born to women with no secondary education was seven; while for women whose education had progressed to secondary level the average was approximately three, even after factors such as income were taken into account. Our children, and our teenagers, are no different from those anywhere else.Yours faithfully,Bill LintonLondon N1325 July. Sir: It should come as no great surprise that education is "the key to breaking the cycle of deprivation" (report, 24 July). It has become almost a truism in Third World development that money spent on education, particularly of girls, is the best investment a country can make - in purely economic terms as well as in improving the social fabric. Give us the resources and we will provide it.Yours sincerely,Josie HicksAldershot,Hampshire23 July.