28 MAY 1994, Page 28

Not Josephine tonight

Sir: Pray permit me to apologise to your readers for having inadvertently by a slip of the pen written, in my review (Books, 21 May) of Sir Nicholas Henderson's admirable book Mandarin, the word Josephine when I had thought myself to be writing Pauline, the sister rather than the wife of Napoleon, whom I well knew to have been the owner of the beautiful house, bought for this country by Wellington, and ever since Her Most Britannic Majesty's splendid embassy in Paris.

Alastair Forbes

Chalet le Aubepines, 1837 Château d'Oex, Vaud, Switzerland