I don't intend to get into a two-way argument with anyone about the ghost walks, but there are one or two points that have been picked up wrongly, and I wish to clear them up.

Firstly, I don't flatter you "Alice", if your reputation is good enough to "sell" then you deserve the praise.

However my point was, how can anyone buy your reputation?

It is yours and yours alone, the person who "buys" it may be a complete buffoon, and your reputation and goodwill can't make him, or her, something they are not.

Secondly, my main point was the fact that one of the ghost walk operators - not Alice, I hasten to add - was going to call the police because two youths were following his walk on a public thoroughfare at a distance of about four yards.

He was upset that they hadn't paid, but they had a right to go where and when they liked on a public thoroughfare.

I likened this to watching the cricket at Scarborough from a bedroom window which overlooks the ground, only to be told by the club to shut your curtains or pay a fee to watch. As far as complaining about making an honest living, from being a 15-year-old apprentice, I crawled about in water and dust etc, installing, servicing and repairing machines on coalfaces, some less than 3ft high and up to 2,000 ft underground, now that's an honest living.

And, hey "Alice", I still think earning money from ghost walks is living off immortal earnings.

W Elliott,

Owton Manor, Hartlepool.

Updated: 11:22 Friday, August 02, 2002