LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
The right of reply
Sir: You have seen fit to give a great deal of space to a complaint by Mr Kingsley Amis that I refused to print a letter (which he quotes in full) on the grounds that it libelled a member of my Mandrake staff. He admits that we offered to print the last two paragraphs of it and adds: 'It is true that those last two paragraphs do set out my main grouse.' I am quite content to leave your readers to judge whether my de- cision was a fair and reasonable one. They may well conclude that Mr Amis suffers from a morbidly insatiable appetite for publicity which entirely distorts his view of his own, importance.
For good measure Mr Amis now libels me by alleging in the Sunday Telegraph 'a pervading incompet- ence that would disfigure the meanest amateur rag'. This at least is preferable to blackguarding my staff.. My shoulders are broad enough to bear the kind of abuse normally confined to anonymous letters from mental hospitals.
B. R. Roberts Editor, The Sunday Telegraph, Fleet Street, London Ec4
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