20 OCTOBER 1990, Page 30

Get it right

Sir: Mr Bowron, despite being a registered indexer, is wrong (Letters, 13 October): it is the indexer's duty to be as accurate as possible, and certainly not, as he seems to

'It's a postcard from Gulliver.'

he seems to suggest, to perpetuate errors in the text. Indeed, it is far from unknown for authorial/editorial textual gaffes to be pre- vented at the last moment by the vigilance of an indexer. I find Mr Bowron's in- souciance somewhat shocking. It is not a question of snobbery but of getting things right.

Christine Shuttleworth

Flat 1, 25 St Stephen's Avenue, London W12