29 APRIL 1978, Page 18

Sir: Bias and exaggeration are of course the stock in

trade of historians, even of such brilliant and admirable ones as Oxford's Regius Professor. But to call my recent review of Peter Townsend's Time and Chance, which dealt exclusively with events described in that book and made no mention whatsoever of any of the matters dealt with in your leading article of 8 April, 'from start to finish. . . simply a gratuitous attack on Princess Margaret' is surely going it a bit, even for someone so distinguished for his touching if overzealous Lowland loyalty to the great-granddaughter and granddaughter of his late father-in-law's best friends, Queen Alexandra and King George V.

More upsetting to this reader however, was the obnoxious suggestion, contained between the lines of his letter, that the literary pages of your journal must be toeing some party line laid down by yourself.

Alastair Forbes 1837 Château d'Oex, Vaud Switzerland