17 SEPTEMBER 1977, Page 15

Explanation

Sir: I am grateful to George Hutchinson (3 September) for letting me off so lightly in my attempt to portray a very complicated man in my book The Odyssey of Enoch. In the final paragraph of his review he expresses the wish that I had explained why Mr Powell was not more sympathetic to Mrs Thatcher than to Mr Heath. The answer is simple, and I thought that I had made it very Plain in the penultimate chapter of my book, by quoting extensively from Mr Powell's own speeches. He will never be sympathetic to any Conservative leader, unless (which seems most unlikely) that leader commits a Conservative Government to take Britain out of the European Economic Community. Humphly Berkeley Three Pages Yard, Chiswick, London W4