Facts of his life
Sir: I am obliged to you for having published such a well-written, fair, and perhaps too flattering `profile' of me last week (I except that ghastly cartoon). As I was not consulted about it there are inevitably some minor inaccuracies which I would like to put straight — `facts' in profiles tend to be perpetuated in the hagiography or demonology. Concerning the Tate Gallery I have never said that I would appoint the Director myself for the very good reason that it is not my appointment to make but the Prime Minister's. My Bagehot edition (of which you had such kind words to say) is alas not yet complete and has two to three volumes to go. On family matters, my father like myself had a number of Christian names: St John is a family name of my mother's and she hyphenated it when she formally divorced her husband. My father's family has had a long connection with the Ionian islands. They were under British rule in the last century and I believe it was my greatgreat-grandfather who married into an Ionian family, so that I have Greek and Italian connections for which I am grateful. My father was by profession an engineer and graduated in engineering, but never practised and went into business in hotels and property. I have two sisters, not one, and she has protested to me about being eliminated. Finally there is nothing mysterious about ',the year' spent abroad after the war. I had thought I had a vocation to the priesthood but after six months' study in Rome found that I had not and have since pursued another vocational career. 1 apologise for penning such an egocentric letter.
Nonnan St John -Stevas 34, Montpelier Square, London SW7
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