29 MARCH 1997, Page 28

Hail to the King

Sir: I am surprised that James Michie (Books, 22 March), as an old friend of Kingsley Amis, is perplexed by the title of Amis's new book, The King's English. 'The King' was a persona that Kingsley Amis invented for himself — a gangland leader who brutally enforced his own literary taste.

Amis imagined it thus: a hired thug goes to the door of a sensitive, aesthetic novelist called, say, Julius de Stoemp, and rings the bell. The novelist answers the door and the thug says, 'Julius de Stoemp?'

'Yes.'

'The author of Trumpet & Shawms?'

'Yes.'

'Don't do it. The King don't like it.'

Charles Moore

Daily Telegraph, London E14