Where English is at (1)

Michael Larcombe, writing all the way from West Sussex to correct the English grammar of one of this newspaper's more literate correspondents (August 7), ought to be aware that Fowler's so-called Modern English Usage is rarely found on the desks of practising writers these days.

This is chiefly because it generally relies on historical principles for English, er, use - rather than on the way in which normal people speak and write coherently.

The oft-quoted "rule" about not ending sentences with prepositions dates back to school-taught Latin and has no automatic place in current English grammar.

Mr Larcombe should also have understood that when Churchill (allegedly) said: "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put" he was actually intending to take a rise out of such pedants as the correspondent who quoted it in a sadly misinformed attempt to justify his case. One awaits his strictures on how to not split infinitives.