In search of Wilson
From Mr Joe Haines Sir: A mildly complimentary reference in my book, Glimmers of Twilight, to Philip Ziegler, the official biographer of Harold Wilson, contained the caveat that all biographers suffer from inevitable handicaps when they do not personally know their subject. I thought that was a statement of the obvious.
But in his sour review of my book (7 June) Ziegler takes exception to it and makes the extraordinary statement that he thanked his lucky stars that he didn't know Wilson, This brings a whole new dimension to contemporary biography: ignorance equals authority. Why is he so touchy? Is it because my volume and Bernard Donoughue's, which he reviewed in the same article, reached those parts of the Wilson story that he failed to do?
Joe Haines Tunbridge Wells, Kent
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