Letter: Nonsense and sensibility

I AM A trustee, along with Leonard Bosack and his wife Sandy Lerner, of the charitable foundation currently negotiating the purchase of Chawton House in Hampshire, where Jane Austen lived and worked. Your article ('Chawton is crumbling as Janeites fight it out', 18 April) grossly misrepresented our plans.

Chawton is currently in a desperate state of decay. Others have tried to save the buildings and land by proposing the building of two golf courses and converting Chawton into a hotel. We are instead proposing that Chawton and the surrounding farmland be restored to the state that it was in the early 19th century. We plan to use the house as a centre for the study of literature and will consult those concerned with Chawton's academic, literary and architectural inheritance.

Is it Sense or Sensibility that makes me dismayed at your misrepresentation of an offer to restore this property sympathetically for the good of everyone?

Christopher Kaufman

San Francisco, California