Sir: In his article on the press — 'An affront
to decency (3 September) — Paul Johnson is Sir: In his article on the press — 'An affront to decency (3 September) — Paul Johnson is
referring to me, wealthy though not by name, as a
Palestinian' who runs Quartet Rooks as well as publishing The Literary Review. He describes Roald Dahl's article in the August issue, a review of God Cried by Tony Clifton and Catherine Leroy as, in his view, 'the most disgraceful item to appear in a respectable British publication for a very long time', adding that The Literary Review has 'published anti-Israeli material before'.
I challenge him to vindicate that charge, since he accuses Dahl of a 'reckless disregard for facts'. Where horrendous loss of life and human misery is at stake, complaints of tendentiousness should be discounted. Johnson has no more need to apologise for the expression of his strong feelings than I have for accepting my editor's decision to publish the expression of Dahl's strong feelings in The Literary Review. Nor am 1 ashamed of my own strong feelings about the current appalling misfortunes of both the Lebanese and Palestinians; for every comparably suffer- ing Jew 1 feel no less strongly.
Johnson concludes his diatribe: 'The most effective action the civilised community can take is for reputable writers to refuse to be associated with a journal that publishes such filth.' Contributors to
The Literary Review are encouraged to
write freely within the law, It is not to be assumed that the editor or publisher necessarily agrees with all the opinions of the contributors. Or necessarily disagrees with any of them.
N.I.Attallah
Namara House, 45-46 Poland Street, London WI
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