• The headline and introduction of an article about the auction of a chandelier by the sculptor Alberto Giacometti (29 January, p13) said it “may sell for £7m”. As the article went on to explain, the estimate is £1.5m-£2.5m, while the higher figure refers to the top price fetched for his work previously. And it is the estate of John Craxton (which owns the Giacometti), rather than the Craxton Memorial Trust, which has been involved in establishing the work’s provenance.
• An article said that in UK businesses “employees are spending, on average, nearly a quarter of their shifts dealing with [customer] problems – up just over a third from last year”. In fact, the figures for this year are 4.8 days a month, compared with 3.8 days last year (“Poor customer service costs UK firms millions“, 29 January, p43).
• In the TV series Crossroads, Noele Gordon played the role of Meg Mortimer, not Morton, as we said in an Q&A interview with Helena Bonham-Carter (29 January, the New Review, p7). And it was Princess Margaret’s grandmother, Queen Mary, not a great-grandmother, who had referred to the princess being “tiny”.
• Last week’s edition also had some geography problems: we placed Birkenhead in Liverpool, rather than Merseyside, in an interview with its former MP Frank Field (the New Review, p14), and put the Isles of Scilly across the sea from “south Devon” rather than from south-west Cornwall (“Plot 29”, Magazine, p33).
• Other recently amended articles include:
Hello, dolly: meet the Barbie fans getting ready for a fabulous year
Wrexham hope to use Hollywood spotlight to develop new stars
Write to the Readers’ Editor, the Observer, York Way, London N1 9GU, email observer.readers@observer.co.uk, tel 020 3353 4736
