Letter: Academical point

Having recently read AJ Cronin's semi-autobiographical Adventures in Two Worlds, I was drawn to your review (21 May) of Alan Davies's recent biography.

There is a glaring error in your review. You state that Dumbarton Academy was "staunchly Catholic". As a resident of Dumbarton for nearly 50 years, I can assure you that this is nonsense. Dumbarton Academy was founded in 1485, and in Cronin's day was the main place of higher learning in the district, to which all bright scholars aspired.

At that time it was fee-paying, and was then, as now, a non- denominational establishment. Generations of former pupils must be birling in their graves to think of their old school being described as "staunchly Catholic".

Fraser Gillespie

Bonhill Road

Dumbarton