1 FEBRUARY 1986, Page 24

Twice read

Sir: May I crave an inch or two to apologise cravenly to Nina Bawden (Letters, 18 January). I done her wrong. Not only did she read my Worm in the Rose right through; she did it twice. That's a compli- ment to any novelist. It also serves to highlight the unequal rewards of honour- able reviewing as sketched by Peregrine Worsthorne, but for whose well-known gallantry we would all be in the libel soup. I shall read the next Bawden novel twice, too.

Her reservation about the way the Worm finishes has me quoting Galsworthy: 'Put in a bit of life, just as it was, into a novel, and at once people will write to tell one that it's the only impossible incident.'

Tom Stacey 128 Kensington Church Street, London W8