Unbelievable
Sir: Frank Johnson (Shared opinion, 21 February) apologises for suggesting it was Tsar Paul II rather than Alexander II who was assassinated in 1881, but reproves the readership who managed only one letter pointing this out. I protest. I spent much of the 1980s firing off letters to editors com- plaining of incorrect dates, faulty maps and the like or simply the absence of proof- readers. I never once received an acknowl- edgment and rarely saw the error corrected in a subsequent issue. On medical advice I stopped writing. I am sure that Mr Johnson did not for one moment actually think that Paul II was the murdered Tsar. Under pressure of deadlines and keying your text straight into whatever printing system you use you made a simple and understandable error. I used this text with the children; here is a simple error about an easily verifiable fact. Deduce from this that the information given else- where in the piece and the magazine is quite possibly also wrong. In other words; do not believe what you read in the papers. I thank you for making this easy to explain.
Robert Avery
158 Rosendale Road, London SE21
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