25 JULY 1998, Page 26

Blathering Blow

Sir: What is this fixation The Spectator seems to have about Simon Blow and the Tennants (Books, 18 July)? After (yet another) three columns of blather last week I still don't get it. Unlike practically every other Spectator reader I actually know of and care about these people, but some of this last offering was pretty dizzying stuff. 'Because of Christopher, Emma had a secure childhood; because of Clare, my mother did not. But, like Emma, I was curious and wanted to know everything about Clare, who had dis- missed my mother, her first child. I wanted to know if I could forgive my grandmother' — er, what was that again?

The whole thing ended with a cliffhanger. Will slumbering Simon be kissed again on the lips by his grandmother? Sir, please, this time I really don't want to know.

By the way, was the book any good?

Patrick Tennant

Hayward Holt, Old Hayward Bottom, Hungerford, Berks