Why Boris is Boris

SIR: I write to correct some clear inaccuracies in the September issue. My wife was the great niece of Boris Litwin, a wealthy Jewish businessman in Mexico City. His daughter, Barbara (Bapsi), my wife’s cousin, knew Stanley Johnson at the time when he was proposing a tour to the Americas. Barbara said to Stanley that if they got to Mexico City they should look up her father. This they did, and Boris Litwin entertained them.

Stanley’s partner was pregnant and Boris, concerned about the long journey back to New York by bus, gave them air tickets to fly direct. It was then that Stanley said that if the child was a boy he would be called Boris. This can be corroborated if necessary. Lindsay East, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire