In these days of doom and gloom I was heartened by your story It's A Gift (January 19). To see such a happy couple was more than a treat.

It was inspiring to hear of the originality of Mr Kissack. I pondered long and hard and had many sleepless nights trying to think of an original Christmas gift.

To think that the total bill for the happy couple's home will be in the region of half a million pounds must serve as an inspiration to us all. As you so rightly say in your comment column, most unfortunate women unwrap a dusty box of chocolates. We lads must do better.

One word of comfort must be that while most women will only find one toilet seat left in the gentleman's upright position, Mrs Kissack will have the problem five fold, not to mention the top left off the toothpaste.

W J Drummond,

Burtree Avenue,

Skelton,

York.

...is the Evening Press so desperately short of newsworthy material that we have to now be treated to the story of someone buying his wife a £400K house as front page headline news?

I really cannot believe that the Evening Press needs to drop its standards to such an all time low. Or is the age of good quality, investigative journalism dead?

Perhaps the sad homeless, the struggling pensioners and the forlorn jobless of York will, after suffering a cold, bleak Christmas, take hope from seeing the story of a £400K Christmas present plastered across the front page of their local newspaper. I doubt it. And, come to think of it, none of the rest of us are particularly interested either.

George R Barton

Saxon House

Fulford Road

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.