Your report (Genge at home with England as Bristol face-off declared ‘a draw’, Sport, 7 November) suggests that promising prop Ellis Genge’s upbringing in a Bristol council estate, Knowle West, may have toughened him more than a middle-class childhood could have. I know it is meant to be a compliment, but there is much more to celebrate about Knowle West than just breeding hard men. I was brought up in neighbouring Bedminster. My father and brother taught, and I called Bingo (voluntarily), on the estate. It was one of the safest, most unthreatening, respectful and self-respecting places that I have encountered in 70 years.
Mind you, I remember one knockout punch being landed on one docker by another. The offence? Swearing with women present.
John Byrne
Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire
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