From Mr James Anstice Sir: I wish to take up
an opportunity and agree with Anthony Julius that the British media coverage of crises in the Middle East can display a wanton disregard for objectiv- ity, and that it is the Jews who almost invariably come out the worse for the imbalance.
It is a shame that he goes on to follow the popular trend by denouncing Charles Dick- ens in the manner that he did. The reason that Oliver Twist is the best known of Dick- ens's books is almost certainly because of that musical they made in the Sixties, not because it satisfied some evil English lust for literary Jew-bashing. Dickens wrote about a vast variety of characters, and observed, better than most, the good and bad in human nature. It is very possible that he had met or heard of characters like Fagin, both Jewish and otherwise. I'm sorry but not every Jew ever born .has been a `nice guy'.
Finally, can I suggest to Mr Julius that, if he still has a problem with Dickens and Shakespeare (and he is probably more jus- tified in the latter case), he should take up Sir Walter Scott, underrated, neglected, but the best of them all (and completely free from anti-Semitism).
James Anstice
Northamptonshire
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