22 FEBRUARY 1957, Page 7

I SEE THAT Mr. John Gordon, too, has been crowing

because twenty-five books published in the English language in France have been banned by the French Ministry of the Interior; and as one of them was recommended to the unsuspecting readers of the Sunday Times by Mr. Graham Greene (he has not been asked since), Mr. Gordon feels that Mr. Greene's literary reputa- tion has thereby taken a knock. I do not know why Mr. Gordon should think the French police or civil servants better judges than Mr. Greene; but he may be interested to know that the banning . appears to have been at the request of the Home Office, worrying over the possibility that the books might seep in here.