LETTER: Dead in the water

From Mr Hugh Millington

Sir: French slang for an undertaker is "croque-mort" (biter of the dead), a term still used today but deriving from days of old when the undertaker, just to make absolutely sure, would bite the corpse. As a former undertaker myself, I think, if pronounced dead at sea, I would prefer to be woken up by that method as opposed to the "law of the sea" method.

Yours faithfully,

Hugh Millington

Boston Spa, West Yorkshire