17 MARCH 1967, Page 23

A letter to my son

LETTERS

From I. B. H. Tutyne, Bishop Frank Hough- ton, Rev John Huxtable, Martin Shalkross, Mrs Elizabeth M. Kemp, Andrew R. Gaynor, J. L. Lord, Rev Gordon Wilson, T. E. W. Baldry, Anthony Burgess, L. G. Sargent, Guy Hadley, Marchesa Iris Origo, Colonel F. J. Ronald, Richard Huggett, M. Casey, Mrs Joyce Butcher, Air Commodore M. W. Palmer (Retd.).

Sir: Simon Raven's clever satire 'A letter to my son' misses perhaps the real danger of this form of egoism: systematic though it is, its disciples never preach it so articulately as he represents, and have not done since the last Epicurean slit his wrists in the bath.