The King's reference to Pilgrim's Progress in his Christmas broadcast
has, I am interested (but not surprised) to find, stimulated substantially the sales of a classic which has always been a steady seller. King George spoke of a book " much loved and widely read by our forefathers, and not unknown to many today." The distinction, I think, is just. Someone in a particularly good position to judge tells me that many elderly people, who regard Pilgrim's Progress as the established classic that it is .and are familiar with many selected passages, confess that they have never read the book through. That, I should imagine, is equally or still more true of the generation under twenty today. There must be many, again, like myself who were familiar with the general outline of the story at so early an age that they have no clear idea at all of when they first actually read Bunyan's allegory first for themselves. One thing is certain. The earlier they read it, and the oftener, the better their own prose style will be.
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