Wilfred Willett Sir: I would like to correct a statement
in your review (6 March) of Wilfred and Eileen by Jonathan Smith.
Since this is a true story, as your reviewer notes, and since the subjects of it are my parents, I would not like those who remember Wilfred Willett to believe he was 'in a condition of diminished responsibility after a shrapnel dent in the head'.
The truth is, as is clearly stated in the book, that he was wounded in the head in an attempt to rescue a comrade, that the wound affected only that part of the brain which controls limb movements, and that during his critical illness his intelligence was sometimes keener than that of the doctors who were treating him—he suggested the treatment to them which saved his life. In 1914 medical knowledge, especially of head wounds was crude.
My father's subsequent achievements as a writer and in public work are known to many, and this despite his diminished physical powers—a paralysed right arm and right leg.
Marjorie Seldon The Thatched Cottage, Godden Green, Near Sevenoaks
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