7 DECEMBER 1985, Page 29

Not Welles

Sir: In her review of Orson Welles: A Biography (Books, 9 November) Sarah Bradford says that in the film The Magnifi- cent Ambersons, Orson Welles `. . in- sisted upon playing a grotesque caricature of himself, the obnoxious Georgie Minaf- er. . . .' This is not true. Georgie Minafer was played by Tim Holt, and Welles did not act in the film at all. Is this mistake Miss Bradford's or the biographer's? One or the other is showing a great ignorance of her subject. I think we should be told.

A. J. Edwards 1 Barton's Close,

Balsham, Cambridge