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While I am delighted to read of Liz Hallum's "Great escape" (12 August) - and very much in favour of her choice of wine - I was somewhat dismayed to discover in the article that the area in which I am still working at the University of Reading had been closed down in its entirety. Would I arrive at work to find the contents of my and my colleagues' offices out on the street?

Although there has been some reorganisation, applied and clinical linguistics at Reading are still very much alive and well, and I am rather surprised that Hallum was unable to report the situation with any clarity. What was it we used to say in the Second World War? "Careless talk costs lives"?

Jane Setter (head of applied linguistics), Department of English language and literature, University of Reading.