Letter: Visual rhetoric

Sir: Keith Ward (letter, 28 December) is disappointed in Richard Dawkins's failure to realise that a remark in his earlier letter was by way of a joke. The late Tom Driberg had an idea for avoiding such misunderstandings, namely, the use of a typeface slanted the opposite way to italics. He suggested it should be known as 'ironics'.

Yours truly,

BROOKE CRUTCHLEY

Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire