Sir: Paul Johnson describes me as 'a low- down gossip
writer'. Why? Because I pub- lished an 'untrue story' about him in the Guardian. He does not say what the story was; nor does he attempt to refute it.
Perhaps Mr Johnson has forgotton what he wrote in his introduction to the Oxford Book of Political Anecdotes (OUP, 1986):
Anecdotes are a valuable source of historical truth. Inaccurate in detail they may be, but more often than not they convey an essential fact about a great personage which more for- mal records ignore . . I am always inclined to give an anecdote the benefit of the doubt: true (at least in spirit) until proved false.
Since the great personage has not proved the falsity of my 'untrue story' (whatever it may have been), I shall follow his advice and give myself the benefit of the doubt. Francis Wheen
Sokens, Green Street, Pleshey, Essex
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