4 SEPTEMBER 2004, Page 29

Perils of illegibility

From Harry Mount Sir: Due to my incomprehensible scrawlings on a proof, it wrongly emerged in my review of Alan Watkins's Brief Lives (Books, 28 August) that William Rees-Mogg had said of himself. 'It is a well-known fact that all West Country Catholics are racially prejudiced. Especially if they are of Welsh extraction.'

That would have taken self-criticism too far on the part of Lord Rees-Mogg. The quotation is in fact from Paul Johnson, talking about William Rees-Mogg.

My apologies to all concerned.

Harry Mount

Daily Telegraph, London E14