The property developer, Harry Hyams, who has just died, was a private man who rarely ventured into the press. But, in 1996, he penned us a letter, "I was intrigued by the obituary of my former colleague Moss Spiro, in which I was referred to as the 'late Harry Hyams'," he wrote. "I find this 'grave' error particularly irksome as I have always prided myself on my punctuality."