BILL Hearld's columns are always enjoyable and none more than the one about magic - the Harry Potter variety (July 19).

I have tremendous admiration for Miss Rowling. From her unenviable position of bringing up a young daughter alone, she decided that to sit around scrounging off the state was not her scene.

So, using her God-given brain-power, she conceived Harry Potter while drinking innumerable cups of coffee and jotting down her thoughts in a caf.

She has done more for reintroducing children to reading than anyone since Enid Blyton, my favourite, and has triumphed in this very difficult literary field.

One direct result has been to make young boys who have to wear spectacles the coolest kids around. My son wore these hated accessories at 11 and would have preferred to go round almost blind rather than suffering nicknames of which "four eyes" was one of the mildest.

We all need a little magic in our lives, and children most of all. They need to be protected as long as possible from the corrupt, unprincipled and violent "reality" which bombards our eyes and ears from every medium.

At least in Harry Potter stories, good always triumphs over evil, sadly not always so in real life.

I can hardly believe parents and priests anywhere should be misguided and short-sighted enough to ban children dressing up and acting out scenes about witches and wizards. This is nannying of the very worst and destructive variety, from people who should know better.

I wish, though, that Bill did not condemn the Bible as a mish-mash of sex, evil and violence.

Surely the most important messages in that bestseller are the commandments, and if people lived by those, we would have a far healthier, happier and more peaceful world.

Heather Causnett,

Escrick Park Gardens,

Escrick, York.

Updated: 10:39 Friday, July 22, 2005