11 MAY 1991, Page 32

Cash gives credit

Sir: May I add a postscript to Jeffrey Bernard's tribute to the generosity of Graham Greene (Low life, 13 April)? Some years back, in the summer before starting university, I went on holiday in the South of France and got swiftly sunburnt. To while away the hot hours indoors, I bashed out a murder story.

A week later over a plate of mussels I

LETTERS

found myself sitting at the next door table to Greene in his favourite Antibes res- taurant, Felix au Port. When Greene's companion, Yvonne, slipped off for a moment, we struck up a conversation in which he advised drinking the house marti- ni cocktails to excess and lamented the lack of bookshops in the town.

I returned the following day to find both the old quarter and restaurant deserted. Under my arm was a large jiffy bag that contained a new book that I had just finished reading and enjoyed, together with my hastily written short story. After scribbling Graham Greene, do Felix au Port on the packet, I handed it over the bar to the head-waiter and left for England.

A fortnight later I received a charming thank-you letter from Greene. He was full of every encouragement for my piece of juvenilia, making invaluable critical com- ments and suggesting editors to send it to — although not the Literary Review, he said, as 'I haven't found their quality all that good'.

I suspect a book is waiting to be filled with tributes to Graham Greene based on chance encounters at Felix au Port. But whilst the generosity of Greene to so many respectable young writers is now legen- dary, less known is the time he also made — as in my case — for complete literary nobodies.

William Cash

Upton Cressett Hall, Bridgnorth, Shropshire