Sir: Do Mrs Fermor-Hesketh's insights have any bearing on Lord
Hesketh's public life? By publishing her letter you suggest they do.
I would disagree, but in any case I am in a position flatly to contradict the impres- sion she gives. I was until the Election Alexander Hesketh's private secretary. As such, I would indeed have forgiven him some irritability, for the circumstances were trying: a very heavy legislative programme for which he was responsible, no absolute majority to enforce its passage, very long days and nights, a fraught political atmo- sphere, and — I might add — my almost constant presence.
I can, in fact, think of no environment more likely to provoke a loss of good humour (except possibly a wet Boxing Day afternoon with all one's family connections gathered under the ancestral roof). As it Was, Lord Hesketh was as consistently charming as his predecessor, the (undoubt- edly) legendarily charming Lord Denham, whom I served in the same capacity.
Incidentally, lest it be thought I am less than disinterested, I have recently left the public service, the better to speak the truth and shame the devil.
Douglas Slater
Flat 4, 202 Kennington Lane, London SE11
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