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Madam, – I was sorry to see that a recent column I wrote about arts funding for RTÉ Radio One’s Drivetimeprogramme was perceived by your radio critic to be “an infomercial” (Weekend Review, October 24th). My aim was to give a sense of some of the numerous ways in which the Arts Council supplies invaluable help to writers and artists, not to provide an advertisement for my books. But I felt that one small way in which I could acknowledge the work of the council was to give some examples from my own life as a writer. I should perhaps have put things differently and written the piece in general terms, saying the council supports literary festivals, Irish publishing, Irish theatre, Irish cinema, the Tyrone Guthrie Centre, traditional music, the visual arts, the translation of Irish literature and hundreds of other cultural activities, but it seemed to me that my piece might be more interesting and reflective of realities if I related it to the specifics of how I received help when I was starting out myself.