Waugh bash
Sir: No doubt, after being invited to 'bash' Mr Auberon Waugh for his male chauvinist remarks about 'women's novels', Brigid Brophy will very properly ignore him. However he deserves a bashing, or a mild basting at the very least, and it would be a pity if no one attempted it.
It just seems so strange that bad books (especially those of a slushy romantic nature), whether written by someone like Nina Bawden or someone like Godfrey Winn, in- variably end up being described as 'women's novels'. I suppose this is because their main audience is female, just as the main audience for bad detective stories, adven- tures and Alistair Maclean-type nonsense is predominantly male. But no one ever- seems to describe those as `men's books' except with a typically smug note of approval in their voice, a bit like when they say, 'It's a man's world' . . .
Well, as men go, Mr Waugh can be quite intelligent, but he should keep his sexual prejudices out of his literary criticism. Perhaps it's just that he's lazy, after all. It's so much easier to be rude about a writer because she's a Weybridge Surrey, housewife than because you've really bothered to examine the way she writes. And it does of course open all sorts of possi- bilities to the reviewer: you could analyse Norman Baldwin in terms of being a Black ghetto drop-out . . . except then, well, one might be accused of prejudice . . . that might not sound so funny . . . No, on second thoughts, Mr Waugh gets too much too many ways. He doesn't deserve bashing —perhaps a gentle knee to the groin might be more appropriate.
Sally Beauman Marylebone High Street, London wl
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