20 JANUARY 1961, Page 15

SIR,—Your reviewer finds it inexplicable that Disraeli achieved what he

did, and wonders how he managed it. Well, he had great courage, imagination, genius. Of course, if one is determined to ignore those things—and your reviewer doesn't mention one of them—naturally he would find Disraeli's career impossible to understand. But Dizzy had other things too; extraordinary patience, perception and wit : he knew very well what fools people are.

When he died, Lord Salisbury—no uncritical ad- mirer of Disraeli's genius—said, 'Zeal for England was the consuming passion of his life.' I have always thought that as great a tribute to what England once was as to Dizzy himself.

I fear it is true that he was detested by the Spectator in his day, but that does not seem to have done him much harm.—Yours faithfully,