Letter: Tory heart

STEPHEN CASTLE'S friendly article ('Thatcher guru aims a parting shot at Fowler', 3 October) refers to the high-level contacts he supposes me to have with leading politicians. This is to dignify nodding acquaintanceships. It is also to ignore the more important fact that, throughout 30 years among the higher thinkers of academe, I have made it my chief aim to preserve an instinct for that suburban, backwoods and provincial opinion which remains today, what it has been for so many decades, the core and heart of English Conservatism.

Maurice Cowling

London W1