31 MAY 1963, Page 13

SIR,—I have not read My Darling Clementine or The Yankee

Marlborough; nor am I acquainted with Mr. Randolph Churchill. I am interested, however. in Mr. Mark Goulden's clear declaration that ac- curacy is quite unimportant. At least some readers care more than two hoots *whether it happens to be Frinton or Westcliff where the Churchills once spent a holiday or that the validity of a popular biography is vitiated because the author says a house has nineteen rooms instead of twelve.' Un- reliability about facts is just carelessness about truth. On Mr. Goulden's reckoning, the distinction between history and fiction becomes difficult to draw.

JOHN HUXTABLE Principal New College. London, 527 Finchley Road, NW3