Peace in his time
Sir: I read with interest, and inescapable dismay, Alan Clark's dismissive review of Clive Ponting's biography of Churchill (Books, 23 April), not because I dissent from the reviewer's opinion of the book,
LETTERS
which I have not read, but because of cer- tain sweeping, though deftly expressed, opinions of the reviewer himself on the past and present history of this country.
In November 1940 Alan Clark was 12 and I was 24, a volunteer flying officer in the RAF. It was, according to Clark, 'the one moment in the war when we had a breathing space — before — just before — we were irretrievably bust'. He goes on to remark that 'this was the time when . . . we could have got excellent peace terms'.
Has he never grasped that nothing was further from our minds at that time than peace terms with Nazi Germany? His ver- sion of our ultimate victory was that it was the outcome of 'a long and bloody trek towards a desert of bankruptcy and disillu- sion'. Is this his adult view of this country now?
Towards the end of a treacherously facile piece of prose he asks, 'Who was Churchill?' Meanwhile he has demonstra- bly illuminated one unedifying answer as to who is Alan Clark.
David Stafford-Clark
27 Monterey Court, Brighton
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