9 JUNE 2007, Page 17

Powell's poll

Sir: I was glad to read Allan Massie citing Anthony Powell (Life and letters, 26 May) as evidence that novel-writing is supposed to be painstaking. The late B.A. Young, for many years an assistant editor at Punch, once told me that when Powell was the magazine's literary editor he was writing his novel At Lady Molly's and was concerned about what exactly General Conyers should play on his cello. Apparently Powell spent days roaming round the office posing this problem to his colleagues before finally coming up with 'Air on a G String'.

It's a salutary lesson for students of creative writing, but, in my experience, seldom accepted.

Tim Heald Fowey, Cornwall