10 MAY 1940, Page 17

"THE WITCH IN THE WOOD"

Snt,—I am as glad to retract such injustice as, in my review of The Witch in the Wood, I appear to have done to Miss Rebecca West and other English critics, as I am reassured to have the former's valiant avowal that The Sward in the Stone is a horse of a different colour from its sequel. Clearly I shall now have to read it, and compelled thereto by so wise and astringent a judge of letters as Miss West, I am emboldened to hope that I shall appreciate it. But I protest to her, humbly, that I hauled no one over any coals.—I am, yours faithfully,