AN AMERICAN IN ENGLAND
Sta,—The review in your issue of June 14th, which I have only just seen, of J. Frank Dobie's A Texan in England, seems to me less than gracious and also less than just. Your reviewer, describing the book as " lively, intelligent chat," admits that it was pleasant to read and certainly not dull, but in retrospect criticises it because it is " unadorned," because the author "is not afraid of saying things that have been said many times before " and because some of his quotations are trite to us. This may only show that Mr. Dobie goes too far in declaring, as he does, that " the English in general have gotten over their patronising ways " ; but in complaining that he is " so anxious to be agreeable " the reviewer seems unaware that the book was originally published in America. It is not all our Allies or even all Americans who appreciate our virtues or who, if they do, are prepared to proclaim them to their own people. When a visitor does so with such freshness and vigour as Mr. Dobie, it would be perverse if our only reaction was to damn his book with faint praise. Some British readers will wish to thank him warmly not only for his friendly and generous remarks about their country but for so racy, so uncornmonplace, so entertaining and in parts, as your reviewer admits, so moving a commentary on war-time England, and one based on first- hand impressions which will some day have no small interest for the
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