27 SEPTEMBER 1957, Page 15

Sut,—Perhaps one should not take Mr. Evelyn Waugh too seriously;

one does not need to be a psychiatrist to be convinced that he is aware of his own limi- tations, which is as it should be. But he goes rather too far in implying (without subtlety) that J. B. Priestley was one of those who 'foresaw the social revolution and knew who would emerge top dog' and 'went to.gteat.lengtbs to identify themselves with the / workers.'

Mr. Priestley's many admiring readers can testify that in all his work (from long before Mr. Waugh's 'some twenty years back') there has been a genuine concern for the underdog—and not in the cheap political sense, either. His sympathies, no doubt incomprehensible to a country gentleman, have been appreciated by millions all over the world, Finally, Mr. Waugh's attempted analysis of Blackout in Gretley is more like one of the late Senator McCarthy's flat-footed witch-hunts than the work of an Englishman of letters. Yours faithfully,