Curmudgeonly courtesy
Sir: I hope it is not too late to make a per- sonal comment on Kingsley Amis's kind- ness of heart — a quality which, according to Charles Moore (`Memories of a great novelist', 28 October), he 'used sparingly'.
Some years ago he agreed to an interview with me, as a freelance journalist, and we met at his home in Primrose Hill. I was ner- vous, since I regarded him as just about the best novelist writing in England. But ner- vousness and haste are poor excuses for shoving a tape-recorder into a carrier-bag with spilt, sour milk at the bottom. When I fished out my tape-recorder, babbling inco- herently although truthfully about 'children and picnics', Kingsley helped me clean it up. The interview, commissioned by a mag- azine, was about 'How It Felt to Give Up Drinking'. He answered all my silly ques- tions with straightforward courtesy, and did not even get cross when I interrupted him in the midst of one of his celebrated `impressions'. I had to write to him later, explaining that the magazine had decided not to use the piece after all, and received a funny and affectionate reply.
If this is the behaviour of 'curmudgeons' it would be nice to have more of them about.
Fiona Hills
58a North Hill, Highgate, London N6
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