West Briton Brendan Behan calls the Anglo-Irish 'the most rapacious
rack-renting landlord class in Europe.' For Brian Inglis in his autobiography West Briton (Faber, 25s.) they are not quite that. More `golf- protestants' than 'horse-Protestants,' they emerge as a gentle, if isolated clique centred on the village of Malahide, and looking across St. George's Channel. I found this description of a rather archaic social structure fascinating, and I should think that Mr. Inglis's book will be a good source for future social historians of Ireland. Fascinating. too, for a journalist is his picture of the Irish Times under the almost legendary editorship of Robert Smythe. All this is recounted with the dry sense of humour which recalls the author's conversation for those who know him. -His excellent account of his own career is surely proof that open-mindedness could be generated from that closed community.
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