30 AUGUST 1957, Page 16

A STING IN A BACKWATER SIR, — Some readers of the excellent

review by Peregrine Worsthorne of Jean Dutourd's Les Taxis de la Marne may have wondered who was the author of the quotation given as a conclusion to this review. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that its author is Jean Paulhan, as this is, for all I know, the first lines ever translated into English of this most original and versatile writer, whose influence has been so great for more than twenty years on the French literary life.—Yours faithfully, HENRI THOMAS 31 Oakley Gardens, SW3