Sir, – In the second sentence of the article on debut novelist Orlaine McDonald, (“Writer Orlaine McDonald: ‘I felt a strong need to transcend that little working-class girl who had got herself up the duff,” June 7th) we are told that McDonald “is 55 but looks not a day above 40”.
How, in this day and age, is this focus on age and appearance, presumably meant to make us positively predisposed to McDonald from the outset, an appropriate introduction to a new novelist?
I couldn’t bring myself to read the third sentence and, anyway, I was too busy wondering when I’ve ever read such comments in an introduction to a new male novelist…. – Yours, etc,
DR CLARA NEARY,
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