26 OCTOBER 2002, Page 42

Room at the bottom

From Mr Wilfred De'Ath Sir: John Mortimer, in his review of The Angry Young Men (Books, 12 October), says that the novelist John Braine 'ended up happy with his fine car and house in the stockbroker belt'. In fact, John Braine 'ended up' alone in a humble bedsit just off Haverstock Hill in north London. He ate his last Christmas lunch in a community centre for elderly folk.

Wilfred DeAth

Avignon, France