SIGNIFICANT SHORTS : Killed in action letter is sold for pounds 27,600

A War Office telegram to Robert Graves's family, wrongly reporting that he had been killed in action, was sold for pounds 27,600 at Sotheby's in London.

It was among a collection of family papers bought by a book-dealer which also contained a telegram that the writer sent from a field hospital reading: "Starting England not dead." He was a 21-year-old officer in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, and had suffered a chest wound in the First World War Battle of the Somme.

Graves, who was later to write a classic book of memoirs entitled Goodbye to All That, survived although he was thought to have no chance. He lived to be 90.