Anglophone
Sir: I know one ought not to kick a man when he has just gone down, but really poor rich Taki's failure (High Life, 15 December) to understand the Anglophone world depresses me. Had he asked around a bit he would have known that I, as an admiring friend of Cyril Connolly in his lifetime, have been his most energetic defender since his death, not least in the pages of the TLS, Listener and, yes, even Spectator. All the same, Taki, think of the chances now available to you to bone up on true Anglo-Saxon attitudes at Her Majesty's expense. Meanwhile, I've just mailed an improving Xmas book to your children on the chance that unlike their often disarming papa they will one day grow up.
Alastair Forbes
1837 Chateau d'Oex, Switzerland
P.S. I believe the witty chestnut joke about Cyril (whose Socratic appearance was often held against him) originated with Virginia Woolf.
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