I TOOK piano lessons when I was ten and can say many years later I have never lived in a home that did not have a piano.

One has pride of place in my Selby council sheltered bungalow. So I cannot be the musical ignoramus Mr Whiting may have imagined me to be (Letters, January 10).

Whether or not I was aware the composers Benjamin Britten and Michael Tippett (I refuse to ennoble them) were life-long pacifists is irrelevant.

My valid question (Letters, December 31) was: "Why was Benjamin Britten given preferential treatment when he appeared before a conscientious objectors tribunal in April 1942?"

Mr Whiting did not give an answer.

Ida Mary Goodrick,

Woodlands Avenue, Tadcaster.

Updated: 11:14 Tuesday, January 18, 2005