31 AUGUST 1985, Page 37

No. 1387: But for . . .

One of Max Beerbohm's illustrations to Zuleika Dobson was a sketch of an elderly, bespectacled, bald, mutton-chop- Whiskered Byron entitled 'But for Mis- solonghi . . .' (see the Spectator, 27 July, ,P.27). You are invited to supply an extract from a journalist's interview with an elder- ly Chatterton, Keats, Jane Austen, Rupert Drooke or any other famous literary figure cut off in the prime. Maximum 150 words. fltries to 'Competition No. 1387' by 13 September. -.....-