By KATIE FRETLAND

Associated Press Writer=

LONDON  _ A British writer was duped into printing a

fake love letter in his latest biography _ complete with a

coded four-letter insult aimed at him.

Biographer A.N. Wilson thought he had new evidence that

English poet John Betjeman, who publicly lamented his dull

sex life, had a previously unknown extramarital affair.

Wilson included the letter, said to be from the poet to

his mistress, in his book «Betjeman,» published this

month.

He failed to notice that the first letter of each sentence

in one section of the letter spells out «A.N. Wilson is a

s---.»

Wilson's publisher acknowledged the passionate note must

be fake.

«We won't be stopping publication of the book, but when

we reprint it, we will take the letter out,» said Emma

Mitchell, a publicist for publisher Hutchinson. «We're not

panicking about it»

The letter appeared to reveal a lusty romance that

occurred 11 years after the poet married Penelope Chetwode.

Betjeman said in a television interview before his death in

1984 that he wished he had had more sex.

The passionate letter, dated May 1944, was addressed to

writer Honor Tracy, with whom Betjeman worked during World

War II.

Wilson received the letter _ with a French return address

and London postmark _ from an unknown correspondent using

the name Eve de Harben two years ago. Last week, the Sunday

Times newspaper received another letter informing it of the

hoax.

«I should have smelled a rat ... Obviously the letter is

a joke, a hoax,» Wilson told The Sunday Times after a

reporter pointed out the letter's hidden code.

The newspaper suggested that rival Betjeman biographer

Bevis Hillier might have been responsible, reporting that

the envelope came from a stationer in Winchester, the

southern English town where Hillier lives. Hillier denied

involvement, but told the paper he thinks Wilson is

«despicable.»

In a 2002 book review, Wilson said Hillier's biography of

Betjeman was a «hopeless mishmash of a book.»

Betjeman served as Britain's poet laureate from 1972 until

his death, and became a much-loved broadcaster late in

life. Britain is celebrating the centenary of his birth on

Aug. 28, 1906, with events across the country.