Sensation over truth

One of the odder aspects of David Irving's failed defamation action against Professor Lipstadt and her publishers (see [2000] Gazette, 29 June, 22) was that in all the media reports and comments there was virtually no mention of the central role of Mr Irving in the case of Broome v Cassell & Co Ltd, particularly in the Court of Appeal ((1971)2Q.B.354).This was the case where David Irving and his publishers (not his original publishers, who refused to handle the book), in the face of clear warnings, had published a book which was grossly defamatory of a highly respected naval captain.

It is difficult to understand how he could ever have been taken seriously as a historian since those days.At that time, his motivation appeared to the courts to have been the pursuit of profit at the expense of regard for the truth, and the damages took this into account.

Those motives since then have been joined by gross anti-Semitism, which made potentially powerful bedfellows until the recent judgment.

If he and his adherents are trying to overcome the message of the latest judgment, I hope that Broome v Cassell will be given more publicity.

Malcolm N Mitchell, Turnbull Garrard, Shrewsbury