Big brother Sir: It was kind of you to devote
two whole pages to a review of my book on international companies (August 26), particularly since, in your reviewer's opinion, it was a 'trivial and silly little book.' I could, you will understand, have wished that Patrick Cosgrave's review had not been so replete with non-sequiturs and serious
misinterpretations; and shot through with distasteful jingoism.
That aside, I would like to correct three factual errors in his review. The important one is that the book is called The Coming Clash, not The Coming Challenge, which should be evident to your reviewer from the dust jacket. Secondly, while I claimed to find the origins of the nation state In the sixteenth century, Patrick
Cosgrave asserts that it is a seventeenth century notion. While my hold on history is slight and slipping, I would have thought that Kings Henry VII, VIII and Queen Elizabeth I had a firm practical grip on the concept of the nation state and that they lived before the seventeenth century. Finally, a minor point, I am editor of The Times Business News, not deputy editor (again, see dust jacket).
Hugh Stephenson Editor, Times Business News, Printing House Square, EC4.
Patrick Cosgrave apologises for the errors in the titles. — Editor The Spectator.
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