Le Carré’s cheeky mistake

SIR: I just cannot resist joining in the pleasant memories of a favourite thriller-writer and a charming man.

While reading Our Kind of Traitor in 2013 I noticed an understandable and amusing error. He described two of the protagonists engaging in a traditional Russian hug – their cheeks meeting ‘left to right, then right to left’.

I wrote to David Cornwell via his publisher and pointed out (after congratulating him on another wonderful story) that the manoeuvre he had described was impossible for two people face to face. It should have been ‘left to left, then right to right’ or vice versa. I suggested rather naughtily that he might like to check the truth of this with his secretary.

Back came a very charming reply from his assistant, Vicki Phillips, with thanks on the author’s part and an assurance that future versions, both here and overseas, would be corrected accordingly. ‘(No demonstration necessary)’, she added.

Have I bought a later printing to check? I have not. A gentleman wouldn’t dream of such a thing! Bill Holloway, Shurdington, Gloucestershire

‘Sure, it’s been a frustrating year. But the scary thing is that, in a few years, it will be the good old days’