SIR, — Mr. Robert Hancock is to be congratulated on his article
'Anger.' From the reaction it has provoked it would seem that he has hit one or two nails very shrewdly on the head.
Every generation has had its Angry Young Men and they have all made the same kind of faces at the same kind of things. It is a juvenile game most of us have enjoyed at some time or other, but fortu- nately most of us grow out of it. Our present genera- tion of AYM seem to have been a little more success- ful than others in leading the uncritical to believe that what they arc 'angry' about is new and even -significant, instead of being largely a synthetic cover- ing for self-pity. After all, the easiest way for little
people to achieve some kind of 'status is by denigrat- ing the things which give big people their stature.
In the case of Mr. John Osborne, he is welcome to his 'from under the kitchen sink' view of life, but he must neither_ complain about the smells nor object if other people reach for the disinfectant. It is easier to 'look back in anger' than go forward with determination, and one has the impression that Mr. Osborne has been looking back so long and so in- tently that the only thing he sees clearly is the chip on his shoulder.—Yours faithfully, A. W. DICKER
4/3 Chester Way, SEI I
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