Letter: Mystery of Home's appointment as PM

Sir: I know neither Lord Rees-Mogg nor Mr Humphry Berkeley but I did have the pleasure of meeting Harold Macmillan when he was prime minister. When I later put to him a claim that he had organised the appointment of Lord Home as his successor, he replied that 'it was a falsehood that was often repeated'.

Now Mr Berkeley claims ('Rees-Mogg caricature', letter, 28 July) that Macmillan 'deliberately misled the Queen'.

As I recall, Macmillan states in the final volume of his autobiography At the End of the Day that the record of the then 'customary processes of consultation' has been placed with his papers to protect his position and that of the monarch.

Yours faithfully,

BERNARD BLACK

Head of Political Studies

St John's College

Southsea

Hampshire

29 July