14 AUGUST 1942, Page 12

,4 THE BOY'S OWN PAPER "

Sta,—We notice a paragraph in the review of Mr. de la Mare's stories in your issue of August 7th which ends:

" De la Mare's plots cannot be crammed into a summary ; a boy raids a pantry at midnight, finds a hated butler murdered and helps the murderer to mask it as suicide. It sound like The Boy's Own Paper, but, in fact, could not well be more different."

We can hardly help regarding this as a serious reflection on the magazine and our policy. Evidently your reviewer is not familiar with the 6o-odd years' tradition behind the founding and carrying on of Boy's Own Paper, or with its present-day character, because, in fact, crime stories are not admitted by the editor, and nothing could be further from the general tone of the magazine than the plot outlined above.

We shall be glad to have your co-operation in counteracting the popular idea of B.O.P. fiction, which is very far from the actuality.—

Manager and Editorial Director.