Although I do hold certain personal beliefs, I can’t claim to be particularly religious.

But I have fond memories of morning assembly at Southbroom School in the 1940s and early 1950s when, accompanied by Miss Harding or Mr Lavery on the old upright piano, our youthful voices were raised in a spirited, if somewhat off-key, rendition of favourite hymns such as Jerusalem, Fight the Good Fight and He who Would Valiant Be (To Be a Pilgrim). Stirring, uplifting stuff.

However, I don’t think the same can be said of the so-called modern hymns I hear now on Songs of Praise on TV. These modern hymns just don’t seem to have the lyrical, lilting, singable quality of the familiar old ones I learned by heart.

As General Booth once famously said: “Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”

Robert Hayter, Chantry Court, Devizes.