16 AUGUST 1975, Page 5

Rejection policy

Sir: How fortunate for Charlotte Bronte — and for posterity — that she did not have to do with Mr Farrar!

Bookbuyer quotes Mr David Farrar, editorial director of Seeker and Warburg, thus: "If by however small a margin you reject a first novel don't ask to see the author's next. It is invariably .. worse than the first."

To take but the one example we may be thankful that Messrs Smith, Elder and Co were wiser in their generation than Messrs Secker and Warburg seem to be in theirs. Might I suggest that if Mr Farrar really does believe what he says, then Seeker and Warburg are unlikely to have a Jane Eyre on their lists — an improverishment both for them and us? F. P. Chappell 13 Rayleigh Rd, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.