A unique record
Sir: I have noted your comments (`Times share', 8 November) on a brief letter of mine in the Times (2 November). Perhaps you will allow me a few words in reply?
The correspondence on 'Shuffling pap- ers', which did not originate with me, was carried out in a spirit of light-hearted humour. Nobody has taken it seriously but yourself. The writer who began it all deplored his wife's way of mishandling the Times and asked for better ideas on keep- ing it together than by stapling it up the middle and stabbing his thumb.
I merely suggested that she should have her own copy as I have always done. In the circumstances it would have been totally irrelevant to go into the serious reasons for this custom — but here they are. My husband required the exclusive use of his own copy, not because I would have maltreated it, but in order to study and mark important news items before handing it all over to be cut and filed by midday.
These files, fed from many sources, were the basis of his work in Parliament for many years. They are now in the posses- sion of the House of Lords and present a unique record of history in the making. Margaret Stansgate
10 North Court, Great Peter Street, London SW1
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