1 JULY 1995, Page 27

Now look you

Sir: Mr Alan Watkins claims that Sir Kings- ley Amis's best novels 'have a Welsh or, specifically, a Swansea setting' and he includes Lucky Jim among them (Books, 10 June). But Lucky Jim is not set in Swansea or anywhere else in Wales. It is set in an uniden- tified provincial town somewhere in England.

If Mr Watkins is disinclined to believe that his Welsh antennae can let him down in such matters, I offer him a challenge. Let him demonstrate by quotation from the novel that Lucky Jim is indeed set in Wales. I am sure he will fail to do so, but if I am wrong I shall buy him lunch at Simpson's. If he is wrong, perhaps he will buy lunch for me. And let Sir Kingsley be the judge.

Eric Jacobs

5A Dickenson Road, London N8