JAMES ALEXANDER recalled his childhood in a family of four occupying a two-bedroom flat with no central heating and suffering condensation (The Press, April 9).

I was one of seven in a two-bedroom hovel with no bathroom or inside toilet.

We woke up on cold mornings not to a bit of damp but ice on the inside of windows.

Like James Alexander, we also had near neighbours much better off than us, but we did not begrudge their better circumstances.

My working-class parents had no time for the politics of envy.

Instead we put our energies into improving our lot through our own efforts.

At school I sat at the front, worked hard and applied myself. Others sat at the back and wasted everyone’s time.

Many of those disruptive kids ended up in poor circumstances, but they all had exactly the same opportunities I had. Today some of them say I was lucky. Maybe I was, but I always found the harder I worked the luckier I became.

Matthew Laverack, Architect of this parish, Lord Mayor’s Walk, York.