Sir: Just as people who give interviews need to be
protected from journalists, so also journalists — especially nobodies — need to be protected from people they interview. I had a hunch that Mr A. N. Wilson would use the occasion of my interview with him to write an article for The Spectator (`The Kitty Kelley of Galilee', 8 June). I therefore took sensible precautions.
He may not like the comparison with Kitty Kelley but after his attack on religion in his Chatto Counter blast pamphlet, rank and file vicars I consulted felt, however unfairly, he would do a Kitty Kelley on Jesus.
Two points need to be cleared up. I would have been happy — exceptionally — to have shown him the finished story, as I had promised, but he indicated he would be away at the weekend and remain unavailable. I told him that I was glad I had caught him on a Thursday so that I could at least check an edited version of the inter- view before he disappeared on Friday. I added that I would further edit down the text of the interview to reduce it in length, and seek reactions to his observations.
Mr Wilson says I telephoned him and checked 'a few quotations'. This is true, although that would not be my description of 2,714 words of an edited version of his interview which took at least 20 minutes to read. He said they were accurate. Later, when I discovered he was cross, I im- mediately wrote to him apologising for any misunderstanding over his not being able to see the finished story.
To add a bit more fun to the proceed- ings, here is an offer for Mr Wilson who claims to have been misrepresented in the interview in the Sunday Telegraph. The interview, as my tape recording proves, is spot on. It is also faithful and sympathetic to the contents and spirit of Mr Wilson's words. He seemed helpful and courteous.
If he can find any misquotations or quotations which have been used in such a way that they have distorted what he said, I will cover myself in sackcloth and do penance by writing the unauthorised biography of A. N. Wilson. Should he find there are really no errors, he must promise to read Kitty Kelley's book. She is a marvellous researcher and has a great deal to teach all would-be biographers.
Amit Roy
10 Henslowe Road, East Dulwich, London SE22
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