AS Jimmie Macgregor's amusing references to George Bernard Shaw's mischievous criticism of the spelling of English demonstrate (Letters, October 17), GBS was an advocate of phonetic spelling. He may have had a personal reason for having an interest in the subject as he was the inadvertent cause of a tragedy in London.
A Frenchman determined to master English, but continually being confounded by the perverse combinations of letters in the spelling of the language, arrived in the city shortly after the opening of the playwright's most famous play.
The Frenchman's dedication to his studies was finally undone when confronted by a newspaper headline reading "Pygmalion pronounced success". He shot himself (allegedly).
Ian Hutcheson,
161 Beechwood Drive, Glasgow.
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