Randolph S. Churchill, Alan Hindle, J. Keith Kyle. The Principal
of New College, London, Emergency University Anthony J. C. Kerr, Michael Webb New Wave in Israel Uri Avnery, Michael Adler The Square Deal Anthony West, K. S. Brown
hurking the Issue Michael Foot, MP
Exorcising the Haig Trauma Robert Kee Biography Travestied
BIOGRAPHY TRAVESTIED Carvalho quotes Sir Edward Beddington- Behrens's statement in his Memoirs that on a visit to Sir Winston Churchill in 1957: 'He had on very beautiful, bright yellow Chinese silk pyjamas, decorated with black dragons.' Mr. Carvalho asks me how I reconcile this with my statement two weeks ago in the Spectator that Sir Winston has never worn Pyjamas.
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do not reconcile these statements. Indeed they are plainly irreconcilable. Sir Edward was wrong, and 1 was right. Sir Edward makes it plain that 'air Winston was in bed throughout his visit. Thus Str Edward could not have detected whether Sir Winston was wearing the bifurcated nether garment which has long been associated with a pair of pyjamas. In fact Sir Winston was wearing a bed- jacket over a vest. As for Mr. Fishman's publisher, Mr. Goulden, I trust that Messrs. Fishman and Thompson are capable of defending themselves better than is Mr. Goulden. He writes: 'Does our would-be paragon „of Punctilio really believe that the reader cares two hoots whether it happens to be Frinton or Westcliff i the , the Churchills once spent a holiday .. . . ?' e reader doesn't care two hoots, why waste paper, type and printers' ink on telling him? And him wrongly, to boot? Mr. Goulden refers to the 'churlish Churchill's catalogue of inconsequential trivia.' He has given a vent' accurate description of the work he has pub- lished and which I was reviewing: but I was not s much concerned with its triviality as with its inaccuracies.
. ngra Goulden's view of what he calls 'a popularY.-ph. , seems to be that it does not matter how inaccurate it is so long as it sells. These are the standards of the gutter press. It is sad that they are „:,),A, contaminating the world of book publishing. 5r,' Goulden does not appear to know the difference i"veen fiction and biography. I don't think that leY Unwin will write so foolish and brash a rills week about my review last week of The Yankee iticulhoroup,11.
tour, East Berglioli, Suffolk RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL
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