16 OCTOBER 1999, Page 34

Nobel Notables

From Mr Kostas Laskaris Sir: Stephen Schwartz is absolutely right! ('Ignoble Nobel', 9 October). The Nobel prize for literature mostly goes to friends of left-wing dictators. To prove his point for him I have selected at random the names of a few laureates: Prudhomme, Kipling, Yeats, Shaw, Mann, Pirandello, Gide, Churchill, O'Neill, Seferis, Hesse, Kawaba- ta, Beckett, Bellow, Golding, Soyinka I was stumped, however, when I tried to find the corresponding left-wing dictatorial names. Perhaps Schwartz will oblige. Or is it a question of trying to prove that black is white and vice versa ?

Kostas Laskaris

Klaskaridis@hotmail.eom