21 MARCH 1998, Page 31

Sir: In your issue of 29 November 1997, your reporter,

Toby Young, wrote an arti- cle about Harold Evans, erstwhile Sunday Times editor and now US publisher. Few of your readers, I imagine, can remember its contents. Not so Mr Evans himself. Stung to the quick, a mere three and a half months- later he roars into print with a paragraph-by-paragraph refutation of Mr Young's story (such as it was): the letter occupies two full columns of the page. Were he not resident in the United States, Mr Evans could bore for England. Why this tedious rubbish has to be inflicted on your hapless readers is, one assumes, a question which only you, Mr Evans and your respective lawyers can answer. It would have been simpler to publish a two- line apology (if justified) and leave the cor- respondence to matters of vital interest, such as the whingeing Pom controversy.

David Wright

Hollin House, Court Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent