ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

I turned eagerly to Vernon Bogdanor's review of The Nations of Britain by Christopher Bryant (Books, March 9), hoping at last to read something about Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in a newspaper that is dishearteningly Anglocentric in focus.

Ha! Pardon my naivety. Bogdanor's brief review is almost exclusively about England: English arrogance and self-importance clearly know no bounds. His view of devolution is relentlessly negative - it is simply a "problem".

Oddly enough, in Cardiff it appears quite different. Bogdanor suggests finally that we need to be afraid, very afraid, when the "English" bulldog begins to bite back. In Wales we've been listening to and dreading that bark since 1282. Fortunately, since 1997, the curtailment of the dog's leash has diminished its ability to maul us.

Katie Gramich
Cardiff University