21 OCTOBER 1955, Page 16

Sta,—In last week's issue of the Spectator I made a

reference to a broadcast talk by Lady Violet Bonham Carter on lapses in literary taste. My recollection of that talk was seriously at fault. In that talk she did not, as I said she did, confine herself to the lapses of non- literary men, but dealt with a number of famous writers. What stuck in my mind were her references to her father and A. J. Balfour, because British statesmen are far from authori- tative in their judgements on contemporary literature, and classical scholarship added to political eminence seems to make a very bad combination. Nevertheless, I must apologise for misrepresenting the nature of the tak. Yours faithfully, °L 17 Monkhams Avenue, WoodfordcGrmeetG1 Essex