Don't knock stag nights - they saved my life

Following my piece on British stag parties yesterday, I have received a great deal of comment through the post, and would like to print some of those letters today, so that I can have the day off.

Following my piece on British stag parties yesterday, I have received a great deal of comment through the post, and would like to print some of those letters today, so that I can have the day off.

Dear Mr Kington,

It is all very well to criticise the institution of the great British stag party and portray it as some sort of mindless binge, but it takes a great deal of ingenuity to plan some of these outings.

In the old days people were content to go down the West End, have a few pints and visit a strip club, and think they had done well. Nowadays even the most modest stag party organiser thinks it is his duty to find out some hitherto unspoilt spot abroad, take his chums there, let them loose on the natives and get them back again. It is the same spirit of adventure that built the Empire and painted the atlas pink. We should be proud of these lads, not ashamed.

yours etc

Dear Mr Kington

It is not all fun and games on a stag party, you know. Sometimes there is a serious scientific purpose behind it. I was a member of the British Stag Party Expedition to the Antarctic in 1997, the aim of which was to bring back plant samples from the Polar ice cap and also to get well and truly rat-arsed in Buenos Aires. I am pleased to say that we managed to achieve both aims. The fact that one of us called Kevin managed to leave all the plant samples in a taxi in Argentina is neither here nor there.

yours etc

Dear Mr Kington,

I am assuming, although nobody has said so in so many words, that these guys who nearly rowed all the way across the Atlantic and got picked up after their boat was wrecked during a "stormy" night were in fact on a British stag party outing. People constantly underestimate what can be achieved by a group of young British males, especially if fuelled by high spirits, and even more so if trying to reach the mainland before the pubs shut.

yours etc

PS Were there any girls on board ? There must have been, though that was never mentioned. Perhaps it was all covered up.

Dear Mr Kington,

I am currently engaged in writing a history of the British stag party, and I wonder if you have come across the story of the legendary stag party of Colin and his mates from Luton, who set off to go to Rhodes in late summer 2001 and have still not returned.

Legend has it that even before they got to Rhodes, they were put off the plane at Vienna for bad behaviour, and then made their way overland to Greece, where they were spotted in Athens at one point tying themselves to lamp posts.

The trail runs a bit cold after that, but they are said to have been seen in Crete and heard in Cyprus.

Unbeknownst to Colin, his fiancée Laura has now broken off the engagement with him, and is getting married to another Luton boy called Simon. Simon is not having a stag party.

yours etc

Dear Mr Kington,

You will never find me making fun of the British stag party. I owe my life to one.

About a year ago I was so depressed that I determined to commit suicide. I went at midnight to Waterloo Bridge, clambered on to the parapet, said "Farewell, cruel world" and jumped into the inky water.

All at once I was surrounded by young men jumping off the bridge after me, and I was swept by them to the shore and out again on to dry land. At first I thought they had jumped in to rescue me, but it turned out that they were a stag party who happened to be crossing the bridge and who followed my example, as they thought, by going for a midnight dip. I stayed with them and we had a great time in Soho till dawn. I have not looked back since.

yours etc