Madam, - I would like heartily to concur with the letter of January 24th from someone calling himself David "The Auctioneer" Herman, who claimed (correctly, as it happens) that he was not me. Of course he isn't!
For starters, we honest-to-God, poor but dishonest Hermans would never aspire to having the moniker " E St C" sandwiched between our first names and surnames; Paddy or Jim is good enough for us. And we have no high-class auctioneers in our family; a career as manager of a brothel in a provincial town is the height of our ambition.
Since that letter was published I have received many copies of it by post (as if I could have missed it). I have had to put up with "witty" comments, risible suggestions and other unwanted attention from scoundrels and layabouts purporting to be my friends. It has been a very trying six weeks.
Worst of all, the suggestion has even been made that there is only one David Herman (myself), that I am the writer of the letter of January 24th, and that I engineered all of this to get much needed publicity for myself and my humble career as a guide-book writer (a list of my current guide books, all of which are indispensable to the serious hill-walker, is available on request). It hardly needs stating that nothing could be further from the truth. - Yours, etc,
DAVID (Not the Auctioneer) HERMAN,
Meadow Grove,
Dublin 16.