Your obituary of Brian Wildsmith (10 September) should not pass without mention of his charming dual-language 1993 book for children Le Tunnel/The Tunnel. Celebrating the completion of the boring of the Channel Tunnel, this follows its progress, albeit in a fictionalised world, and through the efforts of two small and appealing creatures, an English and a French mole. It is ingeniously illustrated by Wildsmith and translated by Anne-Marie Dalmais. Drawings of fantastic and humorous boring machines and a rudimentary and cumbersome early computer pepper its pages. Technorat and le Rat-Bureaucrate evaluate a variety of curious and unlikely calculations. Many of the cross-sectional illustrations feature the White Cliffs, while drôle queues of traffic wend their way across the pages to the ports. Each page has lively description in French and English and catches the optimism and thrill of the tunnel breakthrough. How sad that the decline in foreign-language teaching in recent times would deprive youngsters today of the enjoyment of much of this enchanting tale.
Miriam Stocks
Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria
