16 NOVEMBER 1962, Page 15

CLICHE-RIDDEN Sta,—Reviewing my perfectly splendid biography of Joan Sutherland, your

critic, Mr. Charles Osborne, accuses me of using cliches—and himself, in one short notice, uses the following cliches: 'Flinging oaths' 'with some semblance of `makes me blush . .

'dipping into . . Perhaps Mr. Osborne should pay some attention to his own prose before he writes so smugly about a book which, in spite of the most strenuous efforts of himself and his colleagues, has already sold rno:c than 40,000 copies.

RUSSELL BRADDON

607 Grenville House, Dolphin Square. SW!