31 JANUARY 1987, Page 25

Plagiarist

Sir: As Patrick Skene Catling says (Books, 10 January), John Lennon was by no means as 'casually spontaneous' as he claimed. A solid portion of In His Own Write is an almost word-for-word plagiar- ism from A Manual of Conversation English-Italian by Professor Carlo Barone. Where Lennon has altered the wording, the humour is inferior to that of the original.

Plagiarism is often due to a fear of not reaching high standards, and. it becomes addictive. Has any critic looked at In His Own Write with a view to finding little- known sources, rather than looking for obvious influences like Lear, Thurber and Joyce?

G. M. Watkins 66 Southmoor Road, Oxford