4 NOVEMBER 1955, Page 22

SIR, — In the last issue of the Spectator Walter

Clemons, in reviewing my book The Captain's Woman, says that the stories are trash.

I suggest that the use of so offensive and damaging a word to describe my work is un- fair comment; that it is malicious; and that the name Walter Clemons is a pseudonym in- vented for the purpose and the occasion and "behind which your reviewer chooses to hide.— Yours faithfully, Sea Mist, Berry Head Road, Brixham, Devon

[Our reviewer, Mr. Walter Clemons, writes: 'In writing of Mr. Neil Bell's stories that "this trash [was] as insidious as salted peanuts." I wrote without malice. I wrote what I con- sidered to be fair comment. I do exist.'— Editor, Spectator.]