Sauce for the gander
Sir: In his diatribe against Nicholas Gar- land (The media, 12 May) Paul Johnson generously, refers to me as `a charitable soul'. It is not a description I instantly recognise, and it obfuscates rather than clarifies the distinction between our re- spective attitudes towards Garland's recent book.
My position can be stated in a nutshell. I have always believed that those who dish it out should learn to take it. In Not Many Dead, Nick Garland gives a thoroughly entertaining and informative account of the world of contemporary journalism and if some of us become ricochet casual- ties along the way, then that is quite salutary. For what is Garland's 'crime'? He has merely attempted to lift the lid off Fleet Street in the same way that journal- ists do every day at Westminster (`Mr Tebbit told a political friend last week . . .'). I do not see how newspaper- men can properly complain about that.
A lack of team spirit on my part? Maybe I am haunted by a character I read about when I was young. She was called Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By and she surfaces, appropriately, in a book entitled The Water Babies.
Anthony Howard
17 Addison Avenue, London W11
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