Disturbed but not put out
Sir: Is not your reviewer, Carola Oman (7 February), rather hard on Countess Bertrand when she dubs her 'this silly Creole'?
On the debit side, perhaps, there is her love of social life (English as well as French), and her fits of anger when thwartekby an all-powerful British government.
On the credit side one should weigh the mainly admiring remarks made about her during the St Helena years; her circum- ventions of Sir Hudson Lowe's ultra-security system; and her equally steady circum- ventions of Napoleon's wish to honour her with the rank of mistress.
It is true that Napoleon himself, in one of his Aesksyzinstath, mien% fefetre4,to her as a flighty Creole. But this should be seen in the context of his own depleted pride.
P. 1. Barnwell 6 Almoners Avenue, Cambridge
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