RELIGIOUS DOUBLE-THINK
SIR.—How does Charles Osborne come to the con- clusion that I am 'an agnostic yearning for the cross'? Presumably by one of the current processes of religious double-think. something like 'This man does not believe in the Christian God (or believe in Him in a way I can recognise): therefore he is an agnostic. This man argues against certain Christian concepts (or concepts I think of as Christian): there- fore he is secretly fearful of conversion.'
I doubt if his honest beliefs are quite that twisted. It all comes from reviewing books. For instance, he goes on to say that 'most' of my poems are 'taunts flung at a God whose existence the poet denies.' The description of the poems is about as accurate as his description of me, but never mind that—it's the 'most' I object to. Even accepting the label. I can only find about half a dozen poems which might remotely be held to fit it. 'Reading him a second time however. one cannot help warming to him....' Can't one? It's a pity he couldn't warm to me enough to take back some of those whoppers that entered his head the first time. There are about -fifty poems in the collection, so if Mr. Osborne can count that far and divide by six, his biggest whopper would seem to be in pretending he has read the book at all.
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