Gwenllian Idris

I made your objection in 1986 and you have printed it every year since and you have not changed the phrase. I want that on the recording because it is the whole of what I have to say and everything else is manners.

No longer continuous. It is a description of a filing system. When it is applied to a woman it says: there is a gap in us where you were. Fifteen years in that kitchen and I am a gap.

The steward at the time — a decent man, I liked him — told me it was not a judgement. I know it is not a judgement. That is what is wrong with it. A judgement you can appeal. This is arithmetic.

They have offered twice to take my name off the roll. That is not what I asked for. I asked for a better word. Nobody has one, apparently, in an institution which produces four thousand letters a year.

Am I glad I was there? Yes. Fifteen years. I would not want it back and I would not have missed it, and if that is a contradiction you may print the contradiction.