12 JULY 1946, Page 4

In any normal contest between publishers and authors I am

naturally on the side of the authors. I am well content, therefore, that a team of the latter, slightly reinforced by literary agents, should have defeated the well-known publishing firm of Collins at cricket last week by 127 for four wickets against 75. Mr. Edmund Blunden captained the authors, and Mr. W. A. R. Collins, chairman of the firm, the publishers. It was, in fact, a match with a moralā€”regard- ing the role of literary agents, The role of these indispensable members of society is (I hope) always to do what they can for authors at the expense of publishers. And since one of them, Mr. A. D. Peters, took no fewer than seven of the Collins wets, it is

clear that they hold the right conception of their duty.