24 OCTOBER 1952, Page 16

Shaw's Reputation

Snt—Janus asks in your current issue why Shaw's reputation should go into eclipse. Is it not because he expressed so well and an long the spirit of an age which came filially to an end in 1939, and is at present as stale as yesterday's bread ? To be intensely topical is to become intensely out of date. His plays will probably be revived for their historical interest, and •be--- played in the costume of their time; period pieces revived, as Wilde's plays are today.—Yours