6 SEPTEMBER 1986, Page 20

Hidden tyrant

Sir: I taught in Australia for a period roughly corresponding to the premiership of Whitlam and, I must say, my class of ten-year-olds there did not need then the help of his recent, self-damaging memoirs reviewed in your pages (23 August) to also discern the very nasty tyrant hidden within. `Take away the first and last letters of his name, sir,' they said, 'and see what you find!'

Alan Bays

70 Kingsway, South Shields Tyne and Wear