I SHARE your reporter's surprise in learning that Tracy Chevalier has been appointed writer in residence at York Art Gallery (The Press, January 5).

I, too, think it likely that "this is the first time a well-established author has become a writer in residence at a British gallery". It is such a very odd idea.

Of course, with £1.4 million of residents' cash to play with, the museum trustees can be excused a flutter now and then.

On the other hand, only last year the trustees were lamenting they could not afford to purchase works of art for the gallery, or even pay the salary of the staff member hired to complete the cataloguing.

The aptly named Friends of York Art Gallery were solicited once again to settle the bill from their slender resources.

Obviously, a best-selling author is bound to be a bigger draw than William Etty's Hero And Leander, or Richard Jack's The Return To The Front, but surely an art gallery exists to display its treasures rather than the talents of celebrities?

Would not York Library be a more suitable venue for signing books and teaching creative writing?

William Dixon Smith Welland Rise, Acomb, York.