Obituary: Evelyn Nightingale

I HAD a fitful correspondence in the 1970s with the second husband of Evelyn Nightingale, the late Sir John Heygate Bt, writes Marie-Jaqueline Lancaster (further to the obituary by Michael Davie, 15 March). He enlarged on the thought that, at his time of life and living alone in Co Londonderry, 'One gets the feeling that the days when one was really alive - though not necessarily happy . . . were nevertheless the best times of one's life.

'I happen to be in the position,' he wrote, 'of having lost by one means or another three wives, which I suppose is better than not having had any . . . There is, of course, another side to Evelyn (F)'s marriage (to Waugh) which she cannot write. I could also add a good deal. But it is all too long ago and too boring.'

One can but admire his discretion and that of his first wife, Evelyn (F) - F for female - as he referred to her, although in this context it would seem that She-Evelyn was the greater loser, for never countering the disparaging references to her behaviour in leaving He-Evelyn for John Heygate.