Sir David Mitchell
John Batten writes: As a 20-year-old greenhorn in between banking jobs, I worked at El Vino’s in 1960, pasting labels on bottles (the firm also shipped) and listening in on conversations between the likes of Henry Fairlie, John Raymond, Barbara Griggs and the leader writers of the day, teasing out their themes. They were exciting times for a boy fresh from rural Devon. The patron at El Vino’s then was Frank Bower, a slightly forbidding presence in flowered waistcoats and wing collars, but it was David Mitchell (obituary, Sept 1) whose willingness to excuse the mistakes I made that I remember with affection. He was always attentive to the need to maintain the highest standards, generous with his time and unfailingly courteous.
The Right Rev John Austin Baker
Ron Wood writes: I was a vicar in Salisbury diocese while John Austin Baker (obituary, Aug 27) was bishop. My marriage broke down, and various senior clergy were unsympathetic. Bishop John summoned me, and I was expecting a roasting. But he was loving and sympathetic, and gave me the advice: “Find yourself a wealthy widow, and marry her.” I’m glad I had the opportunity, a few years later, to introduce my wife to him, and thank him for such sensible counsel.
Candida Lycett Green
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Tuffy Baring writes:Throughout the 1950s Candida and I spent every day together. We went to St Andrew’s School in Wantage, and later St Mary’s. At weekends and in the holidays we would meet on our ponies in the outskirts of Wantage and take the bridlepath to the Ridgeway. We would gallop from the Monument to West Ilsley. Not a care in the world. I don’t think our parents knew where we were or what we were doing, and I don’t think it worried them for a minute. In the evenings we’d go to the cinema to swoon over Dirk Bogarde or Gregory Peck. We were inseparable. What a blissful time that was.
Bill Kerr
In our obituary of Bill Kerr (Aug 30) we said that the final radio series of Hancock’s Half Hour was made in 1956. In fact there was a further series in 1959. We apologise for this error.