Good jolt
Sir: I wonder how much Ian Willmore's letter (14 February) on Paul Johnson reflects your readers' views? I myself have more than once been within a whisker of writing to ask what Mr Johnson's doctrinaire outpourings were doing in a stimulating yet undogmatic publication. Can it be that his presence is designed to ensure a greater appreciation of the agreeable tenor maintained by the other contributors?
And yet Mr Johnson is periodically far from unilluminating, as in his views on British publishing (24 January) and the NCCL/Denning affair (14 February), the inevitable references to left-wing publicists' and 'journalists yapping about "press freedom" ' notwithstanding. Moreover, the more sanguine characters of P.G. Wodehouse often maintain that a jolt to one's expectations is good for the nervous system.
. Yes, on second thoughts, keep him on.
Harry Robinson 12 Philbeach Gardens, London SW5
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