5 JUNE 1993, Page 27

True words

Sir: I have no doubt that Oliver Franks, whom I knew fairly well, was a great and a good man, and a splendid servant of the state (Books, 22 May). But when his report mentions 'infirmity of purpose' at All Souls, he merely meant that we should produce more in the way of research.

It did not escape my observation, howev- er, that, in all the 18 years in which he was a tutor in, and professor of, philosophy at Oxford and at Glasgow, he himself did not produce a single book or even article — so far as I am aware — on his subject. ' This does not mean that he was not a great and good man. One may easily over- estimate the value of academic research.

A.L. Rowse

All Souls College, Oxford