23 MAY 1981, Page 18

Detached

Sir: Absence in New York last week prevented me from dealing with Sir Roy Shaw's letter in a brief footnote. It is said he is becoming a little paranoid about criticism of the Arts Council and his complaints to you seem to confirm it. He is quite wrong to think I was taking sides against him in his absurd disputes; I was merely reporting, in vein of detached amusement, what the press said about them, One realises that irony is wasted on the dim; but that it should elude the Secretary-General of the Arts Council is sad, The reports in the Guardian and The Stage from which I quoted may have been inaccurate; but he should take that up with the newspapers concerned. Paul Johnson

Copthall, Iver, Bucks