17 OCTOBER 1992, Page 24

Booby-trap

Sir: Peter Levi says in his review of Brocard Sewell's autobiography (Books, 12 Septem- ber) that Cardinal Griffin was a humourless booby who exiled the author for suggesting, on the publication of Humanae Vitae, that Paul VI should abdicate like St Celestine

'I'm retraining as a can of dog food.'

V. As an historian he should know that Griffin, booby or not, had then been dead for some time and, as a poet, he might remember that many commentators identi- fy Celestine as the unnamed figure who because of his refusal to accept his respon- sibilities is found in the vestibule of Dante s Hell.

John Coggrave

78 Hillcrest, Middle Herrington, Sunderland