Would-be humour
Sir: Paul Johnson's chief complaint (The press, 12 January) about the Times is that 'there is not enough humour in the paper . . . . It is true that the Times has Frank Johnson, and long may he continue to delight us. But that is not enough. I miss the fourth leaders . . .
1. Frank Johnson has virtually dis- appeared from the Times. • 2. The Times is crammed with would-be humour. Penny Perrick's pieces, Alan Franks's diary, Miles Kington's five-times- a-week Moreover column, Bernard Levin's end-of-the-world thunderings, three car- toonists, etc. You may not think it all funny, but it is all meant to be funny.
3. I am too young to remember the fourth leaders, but I recently encountered an anthology of them in a second-hand bookshop. They were dreadful; so arch and self-admiring that they made Punch look funny. I now realise what Malcolm Muggeridge meant when he wrote that everything in the Times is funny except the fourth leaders.
In other words, Mr Johnson has misrep- resented the old Times and the new Times. Otherwise he is spot on.
Bernard Griffiths
Athgarvan, Sutton Lane North, Turnham Green, London W4
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