Thetis Blacker

Patricia Grayburn, arts administrator, University of Surrey, writes: Thetis (obituary, February 24) was great fun. I first met her in 1998, when I wished to acquire some of her batiks for the university. I subsequently offered her an exhibition at our gallery. This took place in 2000 and was a huge success. During the exhibition she decided to test our security systems, pulled a large hat down over her eyes, seized a picture from the wall and made for the car park. She was apprehended but had a certain amount of difficulty explaining herself to the security guard.

Once, when I was asked to represent the Royal Academy at a concert at St James’s, Piccadilly, Thetis came as my guest. We were greeted at the door by someone who took Thetis to be visiting royalty. We were conducted to the front pew and given special treatment. I was assumed to be the lady-in-waiting.

We discovered that years before we had both appeared as Valkyries on scooters in Let’s Fake an Opera in the Hoffnung Interplanetary Music Festival at the Royal Festival Hall. There again she scored over me, by saying: “Ah, but I was the chief Valkyrie.”

Norman Miscampbell

Alistair Cooke writes: Norman Miscampbell (obituary, February 24) did not get the credit he deserved in June 1977 when he came up with the quip: “Anyone who has been to Eton has already served the equivalent of five years in jail.” He was replying in the Commons to a tirade by the leftwinger Eric Heffer on class privilege. It was repeated later by Alan Clark (who, unlike Miscampbell, actually had been to Eton), and was greeted with “prolonged laughter”, though, as Clark admitted sheepishly in his diary, “it was really Miscampbell’s idea”.

I met Miscampbell before the 1979 election when he was an officer of the Conservative parliamentary Northern Ireland committee. He did not support the efforts of the Shadow Secretary then, Airey Neave, to reach a closer understanding with the Ulster Unionists, believing it would hinder the search for a power-sharing administration in the Province. His view ultimately prevailed.

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