2 NOVEMBER 1974, Page 5

Sir: I have not seen Lord Longford's Life of Jesus

Christ. I can well believe it is open to criticism, but, as a lifelong student of early Christianity, I can imagine few things more misleading to the unwary reader than Alan Brien's review (The Spectator, October 26), In particular he writes as if the controversial theories of the late Professor Brandon were part of established knowledge. He should have heard the comment on them recently made to me by a very distinguished authority on ancient history with a special interest in the early Church he happens to be a Marxist, but he does not rewrite the Gospel story by treating the Evangelists as tendentious fabricators and mythmakers.

G. M. Lee, 23 Winifred Road, Bedford