The population of America is far bigger than that of Britain;
therefore, one would expect there to be more American writers of
fiction than British writers of fiction, and thus one would
expect America to have more writers of first-class fiction than
Britain.  However, that prize-winning American writers are
superior to prize-winning British writers (May 22) is a nonsense
drummed up by the British self-deprecating class. For as long as
the Booker prize is being judged by self-deprecating Britons
then it is fair to assume that the Americans will be judged as
better. So the issue is not whether the Booker prize should be
open to American fiction, but rather when will the British stop
running themselves down. Rachel Cooley Rüthlingstraße, Munich
In her review of Andy Beckett's Pinochet in Piccadilly (May 25),
about the Chilean coup, Isabel Hilton speculates that I would
not suggest my shoulders "were broad enough to carry the
narrative of this complex event, and to make him do so does him
little service". This