13 MAY 1989, Page 26

Brief encounter

Sir: It is a historian's business to correct mistakes for the record (Letters, 6 May). My last encounter with Graham Greene was not 60 years ago, but perhaps 30. A brief exchange in the street in London, when I said, 'I thought you were not supposed to be here.' Graham blushed slightly and said, 'Oh, I'm allowed 90 days in the year.'

My reflection on the absence of the writer whom his country is delighted to honour is precisely that described in Friends and Contemporaries, page 260, and is not 'out of date'.