I WAS about to reply to Alan Dixon’s letter (HAS, April 16) questioning an item which mentioned Vancouver “in the US state of Washington” (Echo, April 14) when I noticed that your footnote had beaten me to it.

I have always been fascinated with geography, and there is indeed a city named Vancouver in the US (as well as the more well-known city in British Columbia, Canada). A relative of mine once lived there before eventually moving to Seattle.

This particular part of north-western America is also a hotbed for UFO sightings, which adds to my interest of this region.

My hometown of Darlington is situated in northern England, but does Mr Dixon also know that there is a Darlington County in South Carolina?

He suggested that The Northern Echo’s reporters should learn their geography.

That, thankfully, is not the case.

There are just a lot of places with the same name in other localities of the world.

Christopher Wardell, Darlington.