17 JULY 1971, Page 31

Right price

Sir: Christopher Booker is somewhat inexact when in his review of the Dictionary of National Biography 1951-60 (July 3) he remarks that the price is three or four times that of any of its predecessors.

The previous volume, covering the years 1941-50, was priced on publication at £5.25 in 1959; the new volume is 100 pages longer and in the interval costs have nearly doubled. Today a book of 1,176 pages in a large format and double column setting has regrettably almost the air of a bargain at £9-50.

C. H. Roberts The Clarendon Press

Walton Street, Oxford