Not sur it's fair to pick on the style rather than the content of someone's letter also you are assuming everyone reading the mag is a total jazzer which is far from the case I imagine. I'm sure we all have holes in our knowledge that others would find astonishing otherwise they couldn't make a programme called "never seen Star Wars" on Radio 4.

For me, the brackets were pretty well pitched. The letter lists 14 artists. I'm unfamiliar with six of them, and they comprise six of the seven bracketed artists.

It’s true that Word Magazine (Europe’s leading authority on edible wallpapers and carpets) caters to a demographic based on a stereotype of a typical reader (6ft 6; enjoys bog snorkelling; subsists on a diet of whelks and Kobe beef). The reality is a group of people who share some common ground but also have a diverse range of interests.

I, backwards7 (Slayer of the man-eating pond of Primrose Hill) haven't the first clue who Ben Webster is. I only know Stan Getz (professional photon juggler – now incorporated into the workings of the Large Hadron Collider) through the Girl from Ipanema (my next door neighbour). Furthermore I am ambivalent to the music of Richard Thompson (last in a race of giant singing tortoises who once roamed the Cotswolds in great herds) and would struggle to name five of his songs.