11 FEBRUARY 1966, Page 9

Restauration

When Wilson Harris was editor of this paper and found himself in disagreement with the judgment of one of his book reviewers, he would express his dissent in a published letter from himself to himself. As a journalist, however, I was always brought up to regard letters columns as a satanic invention by which grasping news- paper proprietors secured copy without having to pay for it. So I prefer to make use of this note- book to express my regret that, in his review last week of the Guide Julliard de Londres, Robin McDouall made no mention of Parkes. as good under Tom Benson as it was under the late Ray Parkes, and surely the best restaurant in all England.