For those people requiring long-term medication, it could have a serious impact on their health as well as their pockets.Despite Gerry Malone's assurances that 81 per cent of patients remain exempt from prescription charges, the fact is that many patients, for example transplant patients, are not exempt and require several different drugs every day for the rest of their lives. We could see those patients and those on low incomes selecting which drugs they will use on the basis of cost and not the advice of health care professionals.The nurses pay award can in no way be linked to a rise in prescription charges. To suggest it does is misleading and potentially dangerous.Yours faithfully,LIZ WINDERRoyal College of NursingLondon, W1. From Mr H R F. Keating Sir: Madsen Pirie (Polemic, 24 February), as one might expect of the president of the Adam Smith Institute, has his head stuffed full of misconceptions.

Just two: (1) that public libraries were created to bring literacy to the masses Wrong. It was to bring books to the masses, beneficial books; (2) that Deighton is justified if he leads to Dickens No. Deighton is justified because he is a fine novelist, showing us what life at a deep level is about. Even had Mr Pirie chosen a fiction writer much cruder than Len Deighton, he would still be atrociously blinkered. What he has failed to grasp - like, let me say, not a few others - is that what fiction does, even at a low level, is to force readers to see through others' eyes. And books, because they make a small demand on their readers, do this much more effectively than skimmy TV.A nation where people can see the other's point-of-view is a happy nation.

Any government should make sure libraries are there in numbers and fully stocked.Yours,H R F KEATINGLondon, W2. From Dr W R. Silveira Sir: I find your coverage of the Stephen Fry affair, morbid and intrusive, but fascinating nevertheless. It feels like picking over the carcass of an admired but envied rival in the "Aha, I told you so!" mode.

It is as if the bubble had to burst at some point because that is all it ever was - a bubble of creative genius. This attitude is probably the one shared by Fry himself, who, according to Paul Vallely's article "Stephen Fry's strange idea of failure" (24 February), is a driven man seeking external acknowledgement of his creative efforts and fearful of resting on his laurels for even brief periods of rest and recuperation. As a way of understanding Fry's disappearing act, I offer you the following simple, and possibly simplistic, explanation. People such as Stephen Fry suffer from a paradox in which ingrained feelings of omnipotence jostle with feelings of low self-esteem. Whether one or other sense is predominant is dependent largely on external kudos, such as good reviews. That external appreciation is only shortlived in its ego-boosting effect and, like an addict, the individual is constantly striving for more.Perhaps the reviewers have done Mr Fry a favour in getting him to confront the fact that he is never going to get it right all of the time There are now two possible scenarios that could develop.First, Mr Fry might acknowledge to himself that he is at the far end of the burning out process and he should take time out to savour his successes to date. Second, Mr Fry could take a leap into a different kind of maturity, in which he would translate his recent experiences into further outstanding work. This is a process known as sublimation and it is the mark of enhanced personal development.

It also implies a greater appreciation of the self!Yours sincerely,W R SILVEIRA,Coventry. From Mr Andrew Hall Sir: I was born in Belfast in 1972, on the same day the Northern Ireland Parliament was prorogued. I grew up in a middle-class Protestant area never experiencing the peace that now exists. On the day of the IRA ceasefire, I left Northern Ireland to take up employment in England. I would not suggest that my view of the Framework Document is representative of younger unionist thinking, but it may be of interest in the light of the gap that, it has been suggested, may exist between the unionist leadership and grassroots unionism. When I read the Downing Street Declaration, the statement to the effect that Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom while a majority of the people of Northern Ireland so wished it, greatly reassured me. The reiteration of this statement in the Framework Document again reassured me.