21 APRIL 1967, Page 32

A letter to my son Sir: As a regular reader

of the SPECTATOR, Mr Simon Raven's satirical letter to his son and the deluge of criticism it unleashed interested me. So intensely disagreeable must have been the theme of the letter that the readers felt compelled to turn their immediate attention to almost violently attacking Mr Raven. And it is, therefore, no won- der that hardly anyone thought much about poor young Raven.

I can visualise the predicament of this lad of fifteen on the threshold of adolescence faced with all its problems and difficulties now finding himself in a state of utter confusion and bewilderment. How ironical that the well-inten- tioned exhortations of a father can lead to deleterious effects on, the son! I write to console young Raven. He should try to forget the whole episode for the time being and, I am sure, looking in retrospect when he has reached father's age it would provide him with some amusing diver- sion from monotony.