25 MAY 1985, Page 25

Gentle Taki

Sir: Until your edition of 4 May, I had always tended to believe like Colin Welch that many custodial sentences do more harm than good. But what are we to make of Taki? Having a passion both for amateur tennis and amateur Greeks, I was greatly perturbed when he disappeared behind bars. But now he has emerged in an attractive new guise as a gently admonitory moralist, whose weekly column I in- creasingly recommend to my grandchil- dren. Had I been a subscriber to the Howard League for Penal Reform, I would have been tempted to cancel my subscrip- tion.

T. E. B. Howarth

112A Elgin Crescent, London W11