Whory myth
Sir: How very chivalrous of Robert O'Brien (Books, October 7) to suggest that women need protection from 'salivating monsters' such as myself. What a pity that he did not overcome his distaste for sexual- ly explicit books written by women so far as to actually read the works he set out to criticise.
His assertion that 'the heroines of these books never win their spoils by sheer intelligence and ability but always in the end by playing the old sexual trump card', is completely untrue in the case of my books, and is hard to apply to the works of Judith Krantz, Jackie Collins and Shirley Conran. It is also untrue that Jackie Collins `favours the whore as heroine' — unless Mr O'Brien's definition of a whore is much wider than that normally accepted today.
Chivalry is an impulse which feminists have always viewed with suspicion, regard- ing it as a method of control. In Mr O'Brien's case this seems to be a justifiable judgment. His response is simply one of old-fashioned outrage at women's sexual awareness, hypocritically disguised as care for our moral health.
Celia Brayfield
John Johnson Agency, Clerkenwell House, Clerkenwell Green, London EC1
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