STANLEY SPENCER
SIR,—Can anything justify the publication in such callous haste of what the Sunday Times has called 'The Strange Life of Stanley Spencer'?
Mr. Collis's biography has caused great grief and pain to the painter's two daughters. Devoted to the memory of both their parents, they were powerless under the terms of their father's will to prevent what seems to us as well as to them an abuse by the execu- tors of his private papers. The Sunday Times printed only brief and misleading extracts from a letter ad- dressed to the editor in which they disclaimed respon-
sibility for the book and dissented from its portrayal of their father.
We know that many readers to whom the people concerned are personally unknown have been shocked by the unkind and untimely sensationalism of the selections which the Sunday Times chose to publish.
It is on their behalf and as friends of the Spencers and the Carlines that we, the undersigned, protest. These disclosures might have caused less pain to the family if they had been made a few years later, and the book itself might then have gained in depth, per- spective and understanding.
PAUL BLOOMFIELD FRED UHLMAN PHILIP HENDERSON ELIZABETH JENKINS ROSEMARY TONKS NORMAN WIGGINS
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