5 JANUARY 2008, Page 20

Welsh Stalin

Sir: I enjoyed Paul Johnson’s essay on the Ozymandian transience of dictators (And another thing, 1 December), but I must take issue with him on his description of Henry VIII as the ‘English Stalin’. The Tudor dynasty was Welsh, and owed its existence to Welsh support for Henry VII at Bosworth. I would be the first to agree with you that the epithet ‘Georgian Henry VIII’ does not sit too comfortably, but facts, Mr Johnson, are facts.

John Christopher Williams

King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia