Madam, - I was most interested to read in Hugh Oram's Irishman's Diary of January 21st that the writer Ethel Voynich was Irish.
Having grown up in the former Soviet Union, I can confirm that her novel The Gadflywas very popular among my contemporaries. Its story of romance and revolution brought tears to the eyes of many a teenage Russian girl of my generation and my mother's.
I doubt, however, if Mr Oram is correct in suggesting that Ethel
Voynich is still popular in today's Russia. We Russians are so sick
of revolutions of all kinds that her novel would no longer be to
our taste. - Yours, etc,
NATASHA BATES,
Sandymount,
Dublin 4.