Nobel minds?
Sir: Auberon Waugh (`Tale of two authors', 10 December) correctly perceives the failure of the Nobel Prize for Literature to reflect true literary merit over the years, Of those British novelists who failed to find favour with the Swedish conclave, one in particular stands out Joseph Conrad, arguably the greatest writer of English this century, whose breadth and majesty of style bears comparison with Homer.
Other novelists who would also have made worthy laureates include Thomas Hardy, E.M. Forster, Evelyn Waugh and even perhaps L.P. Hartley, an underrated, but highly perceptive writer. And why has Graham Greene been consistently passed over for the highest literary award?
By a twist of irony, the winner of the prize in 1924, the year of Conrad's death, was a Pole named W. Reymont. Can any reader of the Spectator name a single work by this man?
Simon Harrison
Flat 1, The Quillets, 6 Liverpool Road, Chester
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