Errors and excuses
Sir:It was nice of Peter Basell to allege that Jeremy Thorpe; A Secret Lift was 'a highly readable, entertaining book that moves along at a cracking pace' (1 December), but I hope you will forgive our suggestion that the encomium might have been more securely sourced. We could not help noticing that Mr Bessell's review of our book went on to assert that it contained numerous — 'almost 40' —gross inaccuracies and misleading statements in relation to himself.
During the trial of Mr Thorpe it will be recalled that Mr Bessell helped defence counsel through an assessment of his own letters by replying to questions with the helpful categorisations: 'true', 'false', 'partly true and partly false' or 'unable to say which'. It seems to us that his review might benefit from a similar textual analysis.
Naturally we can make mistakes as well as the next man, without in any way claiming to be among Mr Bessell's peers in this domain.
Lewis Chester Magnus Linklater David May Sunday Times, 200 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1
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