THE LITTLE MERMAID

Today is exactly 100 years since the statue the Little Mermaid was erected in Copenhagen harbour.

I have to say that I have never understood why everyone gets so excited by the Little Mermaid. I first saw it when I was inter-railing around Scandinavia as a 17-year old back in 1977, and my first impression of it was that it was, well, little. It also had a couple of Japanese tourists hanging all over it, which rather spoiled its charm.

Since then, it hasn't got any bigger, but the number of Japanese - and other- tourists certainly has. For some reason, they all seem to think it's great. Each to his own, I suppose.

Walter Blotscher