30 JULY 1983, Page 18

Enigma variation

Sir: The sting in the tail of Brian Masters's extremely generous review of my book Elgar The Man: (16 July) perhaps deserves to be half extracted. In referring to Elgar's life as 'tormented' I was in fact reiterating a quotation from Sir Arnold Bax, who actually knew Elgar, if only slightly. I do see that I appear to go along with Bax's judgment, but he ought to have the credit for it!

Michael De-la-Noy,

54 Gondar Gardens, London NW6