Dear Mary | 15 August 2009

Q. I was asked to review a collection of letters and did so, praising to the skies the late author’s wit, integrity and astute judgment of human character. News now reaches me that an old family friend, lampooned in these letters, has taken offence. She saw my ringing endorsement of these letters as a ringing endorsement of their author’s ‘attack’ on her. I did not refer to this woman in my review although I remember very much enjoying the references to her. It was clear that their author had never allowed her absurd side to stand in the way of his liking her very much. I feel the same way and my late parents would be horrified to think of any of us having hurt her feelings. I would not be so worried were she not a little bit frail these days, but I can see now how someone with a lot of time on their hands, and not a great sense of humour, might be hurt by an old friend’s failure to defend her, as she would have seen it.