23 MARCH 1985, Page 21

Sir: Perhaps you will allow me to correct a misstatement

in Max Hastings' interesting review of Philip Ziegler's biography of Mountbatten, viz 'The author's publishers have done him no service with their ful- some jacket blurb, which concludes that "Philip Ziegler has produced a master- piece", a hype the less excusable since Ziegler was their editorial director.'

I wrote the blurb without assistance or instruction from anyone else and the judg- ment it expresses is my own.

To dispose of an unmistakably un- pleasant insinuation, I should add that Mr Ziegler was not 'the' editorial director of Collins, but one of a number of editors who were also directors.

Richard 011ard

Norchard Farmhouse, Morcombelake, Bridport, Dorset