Julius Neave

Alistair Cooke Writes: Julius Neave (obituary, November 17) bore a clear family resemblance to his cousin Airey Neave, for whom I worked.

The two cousins joined the Territorial Army together a few days before the outbreak of war. According to Julius, the recruiting officer asked them: “Would you like to be soldiers or officers?” Unsurprisingly, they replied: “Given the choice — officers!”

John Daly

Steven Berkoff writes: I met John Daly (obituary, November 15) in Los Angeles in 1984, while I was performing in my play Decadence with Linda Marlowe. We became friends and remained so ever since. Daly was a shrewd, rude and funny man and had an acute eye for what makes an exciting or controversial film. He loved actors and going to the theatre, which he had a sneaky respect for, and each time he came to London never failed to go to even the most difficult plays. He was a good friend to have, and with someone like that you need never be alone in LA. He knew everybody and in that small cliquey world everyone knew and respected him, and even stranger still, everybody had a different opinion about him, since he was quite a sharp wheeler-dealer and was never afraid to take risks.

He brought the most extraordinary projects to life and often the more anti-Establishment the better. He had that London working-class duck-and-dive shrewdness all his life and could judge a person’s character in a second. He had directed a film called the Aryan Couple which was a masterpiece of acting and directing. He was one of a kind, and Hollywood will be poorer without him.

David de Caires

Anthony de Freitas writes: Your obituary of my cousin David de Caires (November 13) understandably focused on his remarkable achievement in establishing in Guyana an independent newspaper in a country whose successive regimes did not bear criticism lightly. No memoir of his life, however, would be fully rounded without some mention of his personal qualities and other interests. He was an enthusiastic devotee of jazz, literature and of many sports, with a particular emphasis on golf and horseracing. The latter, together with poker, fuelled his penchant for gambling. A full account of his 50 years of jousting with the bookmaking fraternity — not all of it unsuccessful — would itself fill an edition of Stabroek News. (His father, Francis de Caires, incidentally played Test cricket for the West Indies acquiring a reputation as a strokemaking batsman, an indolent fielder and a roistering tourist.) David de Caires himself was a convivial, generous spirited and kind-hearted man of utter integrity.