Rethinking Berlin
Sir: I was painfully astonished to read (Books, 17 October) an alleged 'review' of the biography of Sir Isaiah Berlin by a Canadian journalist, prolific and respected, which I have not yet had the chance to see.
In the half-century of our close friendship, which I daily sorely miss, I picked up from him the useful Russian phrase `nizhe kritiki' meaning simply 'beneath criticism' and I had applied it to Mr Cowling's bitchy ignorance after reading only a few lines, though curios- ity took me to the bitter end of his sottisier. But how on earth had such a review been permitted to soil the literary pages over which that admirable West Countryman, Mark Amory has so long and brilliantly presided? To my painful sickbed a south- ward-bound swallow brought the answer: the offending and offensive contribution had been commissioned and printed by the edi- tor himself. I found it sad to reflect that so sensitive a music-lover as Frank Johnson had never had the chance to meet or speak to Isaiah, for whom music was life.
Your reviewer dragged in the name of Guy Burgess, clearly with malice afore- thought. But it was Guy who announced to the assembled staff of the Foreign Office that 'Ali Forbes is immune from the totali- tarian temptation, whether of Left or Right.' That was one thing Isaiah and I had in common and it was to remain the safe basis of half a century's close friendship whose humour and stimulation I shall never cease to feel deprived of by his death.
Alastair Forbes
Chalet les Aubepines, Château d'Oex, Vaud, Switzerland
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