The Dark Valley

Sir, - I am grateful to Misha Glenny for his review of my book The Dark Valley (Books, April 15th) but he is wrong about both…

Sir, - I am grateful to Misha Glenny for his review of my book The Dark Valley (Books, April 15th) but he is wrong about both the "errors of fact" which he ascribes to me. I do not say that Hitler was born in Linz, just that it was his home town - he certainly regarded it as such. (His birthplace, incidentally, was Braunau, not Branau, as Glenny has it.) Nor do I say that Stalin was born in Tiflis, merely that he was a seminarian there. - Yours, etc.,

Piers Brendon, Millington Road, Cambridge.