THE sub-editor (Spikus vulgaris) is a retiring beast inhabiting the jungle of journalism, writes Robert Richardson. On morning papers, he - the female of the species was not discovered until the Sixties, so the masculine pronoun will suffice - spends his life in the twilight zone, arriving anonymously in the afternoon, ruminating over spelling and syntax as the day dies, and padding softly into the night when all is finished.

YOU reported the tragic death of seven heroin overdose victims in the King's Cross area ('Heroin kills seven in nine days at King's Cross', 11 April). Their deaths were said to be related to heroin of 70 per cent purity, twice that usually supplied on the street. This outcome disappointed the police who had recently removed local heroin dealers in an attempt to clean up the area.

POLICE are investigating the mysterious deaths from drug overdoses of seven people in nine days around King's Cross in central London.

JUST BEFORE they started finding the bodies, Harry wandered into the Ferndale Hotel at King's Cross to tell his friend the latest from the seedy and dangerous world outside: 'There's a lot of really pure gear on the streets, 70 per cent heroin . . . really, really strong stuff.'

SIR BOB REID, chairman of British Rail, once described the seemingly endless debate over where to put the high-speed Channel tunnel rail link and how to finance it as a pantomime. That was about two years ago, and things haven't moved on a great deal since. True, the route now seems finally to have been decided, though given the way it has been chopped and changed in the past, I wouldn't bet on it being stuck to.

A COUPLE of weeks ago we celebrated the fifth birthday of Eurotunnel's campaign for a Channel tunnel rail link. Now John MacGregor, the Secretary of State for Transport, seems to have given us our birthday present: a 'go-ahead' for the New Line has come leaking and stumbling into the light of day. If it is a bankable promise, it is hugely welcome. But three questions must be answered.

EVA GREEN, the estranged wife of Sir Allan Green, the former Director of Public Prosecutions, committed suicide by placing a plastic bag over her head, a coroner ruled yesterday.

A FEROCIOUS row has broken out between British Rail and the Department of Transport over plans for the London terminus of the proposed Channel tunnel rail link.

Sir: The decision by British Rail to abandon the low-level King's Cross station for Channel tunnel services is not surprising ('BR to scrap King's Cross plan', 17 February) given the economic malaise in London and the South-east, but it is also regrettable for a reason not mentioned in the Independent report.

PLANS TO build a pounds 1.4bn low- level terminus for the Channel rail link at London's King's Cross are about to be scrapped by British Rail in favour of a cheaper option involving the remodelling of St Pancras station.

BRITISH RAIL will submit its long-awaited proposal today for the route of the Channel tunnel rail link with a recommendation to ministers that the line runs by tunnel from east London into King's Cross station.

(First Edition)

CONSTRUCTION of the Channel tunnel rail link between London and Folkestone faces further delays because the British Rail Board has turned down the latest proposals for its route.

I FIXED a padlock to the gate the day after I discovered a prostitute shooting up in my back yard. Squatting among the dustbins, a carrier bag clamped between her legs, she seemed more alarmed than I was. As I fumbled for my door keys she tore the syringe from her arm and mumbled: 'I'm sorry, I shouldn't be doing this here; it's your home.'