22 OCTOBER 1943, Page 14

" THE POKER-FACE "

Sm,—It is, I realise, my own fault that my handwriting is unintelligible, but perhaps I might be allowed to explain:

(a) I did not write: "Mr. Pearson as his biographer has some of the qualities of Dr. Johnson's," but " Mr. Pearson as a biographer has some of the qualities of Dr. Johnson "—a very different thing. Mr. Pearson is no Boswell.

(2) Conan Doyle was educated at Stonyhurst.

(3) " Within such very wide links . a writer can do what he likes." I am convinced that I wrote " limits."

I hope, Sir, that you will print this letter, but I shudder to think how it will appear since I am still without a typewriter.—Yours, &c., GRAHAM GREENE.

[Owing to exceptional pressure on our printers, proofs are not in- variably available nowadays. Mr. Graham Greene admits his handwriting is difficult, but we offer him a sincere apology.—En., The Spectator.] -