NAMES IN THE NEWS : Ex-Mayor Jabs Back With Book

Former Mayor Edward I. Koch takes on old foes with his customary vitriol in a collection of letters and newspaper columns from his 12-year reign.

“Always give as good as you get,” Koch wrote his successor, David Dinkins, who defeated him last year. That letter is one of several in “All the Best: Letters from a Feisty Mayor,” due out in April.

On the scandals that shook his third term, Koch wrote to Dinkins, “The most searing pain of my twelve years was learning I had been betrayed by people who were corrupt.

“I was despondent. I must confess, on several occasions when I was alone, I wept. It was hard to get myself out of bed in the morning.”