Campbell on pipes
Sir: In your profile of Alastair Campbell (`Labour's real Mr Fixit', 30 September), your anonymous contributor claimed that when I was editor of the Daily Mirror, and on holiday, Campbell would find out in which village in the South of France I was staying and then book somewhere close by, presumably with the intention of sucking up. This is nonsense.
However, I did run into Alastair on one occasion. I had taken my family to Ville- franche for dinner; in the square we found Campbell playing the bagpipes to a large and appreciative crowd. I donated ten francs into the hat that was being passed around.
What is your correspondent to make of that? Did Campbell roam up and down the Riviera and, like Blonde! seeking Richard the Lionheart, play his pipes in every village until I was drawn to the sound of them? I think not. It was well known by everyone in the Mirror office that I stayed in the same villa every year. He could have gone straight to La Colle-sur-Loup and played under our window.
Mike Molloy
62 Culmington Road, Ealing, London
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