As I recall from Rosely’s reading—and I have no wish to read it myself and make sure—for the greater part of James Fenimore Cooper’s classic The Last of the Mohicans, Hawk-eye spends much of his time rescuing or being rescued by the incredibly brave young woman Cora. In the final pages, the evil Magua has Cora but Hawk-eye has trapped him. The climatic scene. Just another page and Magua will fall to his well-earned death. And then this line! `Magua recoiled a step, and one of his assistants, profiting by the chance, sheathed his own knife in the bosom of Cora.’ I couldn’t believe it! And neither could Rosely, nor anyone else. This was the most callous, unnecessary ruthless act in the history of all literature, and the heroine is swept to death so simply, pointlessly and with nought but a literary flourish. I hated the book and everything to do with it. But then, I was conditioned to hate Americans from birth anyway (with the honourable exception of their movies of course.) Now I had a reason of my own for doing so.