12 JUNE 2004, Page 35

Witty on the City

From Dr Harold Hughes Sir: Every issue I look forward to reading Christopher Fildes's wonderfully acerbic comments on economic issues of the day. In City and Suburban (15 May) — which for complicated reasons I've only just read — he attributed the book How to Run a Bassoon Factory to Mark Spade, but this was the 1934 pseudonym of Nigel Balchin, later a renowned author and film scriptwriter. If only we still had witty writers on the essentials of industry, as we do with Mr Fildes on economics.

Harold Hughes

Kingston-upon-Thames, Surrey