DE GUSTIBUS
S1R,—Your public is entitled to a minimum guarantee of fairness just as surely as your reviewers have the right to their opinions. Mr. Conquest, in his notice of Dannie Abse's Fire in Heaven, quotes two lines of verse which, had he troubled to finish, reading this short play—and from his own statements it seems most unlikely he had the elementary diligence to do so—he would have realised were ascribed to a naive and hysterical character in the drama. To imply to readers that 'this is how Dr. Abse writes' in his own person is not only to malign the author but also to mis- understand grotesquely the nature of dramatic verse. Would Mr. Conquest have referred to the poems recited by the Rev. Ely Jenkins
in Under Milk Wood with the supercilious comment, 'This is how Dylan Thomas writes'? —Yours faithfully,
NORMAN KREITMAN
113 Ruskin Park House, Champion Hill, SE5
[Mr. Conquest writes: 'I read the lot. The character did not seem to me to be much more naive or hysterical than the others. Quotations from them would have served equally well. He was not supposed to be reciting a poem. Per- haps Mr. Kreitman believes that the Eliza- bethan dramatists (e.g.) wrote bad verse for their bad characters'—Editor, Spectator.]
Previous page
