Sir: I am deeply grateful to Tony Palmer for his
notice of my novel Experiment at Proto but, for the record, may I correct some of his more gaudy generalisations. I do indeed write about the arts in the Sunday Times, but as a reporter and not as a critic. It is, in fact, several years since I published criticism of any book or film or TV programme and never to my recollection have I used such a jaded phrase as 'key personalities of our age,' although it does limp into mind
when I consider Mr Palmer's own posturings. Once, perhaps misguidedly, I did interview him for a magazine article and at the time he judged my article to be accurate and sympathetic. Alas, times change. Now and then I do present a radio arts programme where my function is primarily to elicit the opinions of other contributors, but my novel is concerned only in part with the media — whether or not I know it well. I had hoped its theme was the difficulty in communication between man and animal and between man and man. The 'quasi-scientific gloss' I use to display or, (as Mr Palmer seems to think) obscure these difficulties derive from experiments—some imagined and some real — which I observed (the real ones, that is) during three years as the scriptwriter of a series of films on animal behaviour. I'm not sure whether Mr Palmer objects to my fluency — 'presumably acquired through frequent practice' — but I'd rather have it than not.
Philip Oakes Pinnock Farm House, Pluckley, Kent.
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