16 DECEMBER 1955, Page 18

THE MAN WHO WENT TO DINNER ? SIR,—In his review

of Mr•. Gorley Putt's View from Atlantis your contributor writes: 'Mr. Gorley Putt's twenty years' acquaintance with America has softened the piercing visitor's- squint that made Mr. Gorcr's The Americans exhilarating. . I am properly grateful for the commendatory adjectives, but I should like to point out that I had spent close on eight years in the United States when I wrote the book—the details are given in the foreword; and that seems rather a long period to be described as 'a visit.'—Yours faithfully,

GEOFFREY GORER

Sunte House, Haywards Heath, Sussex