Mumsnet Talk

I've always gone out of my way to avoid using 'whose' when talking about inanimate objects, for example, 'the book, whose cover is red'. If using 'of which' would be inelegant, I rephrase.

I have just picked up a book which opens with exactly such a construction. A quick Google suggests that it widely considered to be correct and acceptable, and that I am misguided in this particular bit of pedantry (!). Apparently Fowler endorses it, with the following line from Milton’s Paradise Lost: 'Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit/Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste/Brought death into the world [...]'.

What do you all prefer to do?

I can't imagine why you wouldn't. If English had noun genders you wouldn't think twice about it.