The editor responded to this letter.

Hood House 406
Dolphin Square
London S.W.1.
September 6, 1971

The Editor
The Observer Magazine
160 Queen Victoria St
LONDON EC4.

Dear Sir

Up to now we subscribe both to your paper and the Sunday Times. But last week's Colour Supplement is so inferior in content to your competitor's that I'm writing to ask are you now running it on the lines of Hughie Green's 'Opportunity Knocks' for would-be humorists. In which case both my husband l I feel we could contribute attempts at humour that would not fall too far short of that on Gypsy Caravanning by your contributor John Sandilands.

It takes a gifted humorous writer like the late Stephen Leacock to bring sparkle to the kind of subject matter selected. One can only suppose you are so short of talent that you devote so much space in the Colour Magazine to drivel which is neither humorous on the one hand or factual and informing on the other.

If you are running an 'Opportunity Knocks' magazine, may we contribute our humorous versions of attempts at pony trekking even learning to ride a bicycle. They are of family jokes of the kind Mr. Sandilands seems to find amusing to himself. I fear however ours would have the same effect on your large cross section of readership as his article did on us namely the weighing up of the cost of subscriptions to The Observer if its Colour Supplement continues on such amateur lines.

Yours faithfully,

J. Balmer (Mrs)