LETTERS
From Kenneth Al!sop, Kenneth Young, P. A. Mackridge, S. G. Lawrence, George Chowdharay-Best, Professor H. C. Mc- Laren, Cmdr Robin Bousfield, RN, T. A. M. Jack. lolo Davies, L. E. Weidberg, David J. Oldman, Basil Davidson, Howard Robertson, Alan Smithies, Douglas Brown, Myra McIntyre.
Life and letters
Sir: I read with interest (`Spectator's note- book', 28 June) of Mr Kingsley Amis's ex- change with the Arts Council about its plan to despatch writers to lecture in local education authorities' areas.
I too was approached by Mr Eric W. White, the Council's 'Literature Director'. I was no more attracted than was Mr 'Amis by the peremptory and chill temper of Mr White's letter, which contained the warning (presumably to ensure that the favoured candidate's self-esteem did not uncontrol- lably inflate) that 'because writers' names are included in this list it will not necessarily follow that they will be invited . .
However, I was not so quick on the snub as Mr Amis (although I now think that per- haps I should have been) for, despite Mr White's recruiting sergeant manner, it sounded a worthwhile scheme to bring sec- ondary modern pupils in direct contact with writers. I explained that because of a busy professional life I would need to know how often and for where I would be called upon, and asked for clarification of the ambigu- ous phrase 'no writer should receive less than £15 per lecture'.
Mr White's reply cannot be said to have been a glad cry of enthusiasm that one's services might be available. In flat and dis- tant tone he pointed to the Council's largesse in subsidising the fee up to £15 when some authorities offered less. I re- plied : `. . . 1 was rather puzzled by your lack of response. If one were to participate in this, it would quite obviously be because one felt it to be a scheme deserving encour- agement and support, and not for the money', and again said that, although I might participate, I needed to know more about the probable demands upon one's time. In his next, even curter letter, Mr White's attitude had appreciably stiffened, and he succeeded in consolidating the atmosphere which had been steadily grow- ing; in firmly placing one in the position of an out-of-work skivvy trying to cadge a job in the kitchen of a Victorian school from an unbendingly severe headmistress.
I have now written to say that I do not feel I would happily fit into this proposed servitorship and must decline to be drafted.
I agree with Mr Amis that the Arts Council should hardly be abetting in cut- price drudging. But he must concede that at least the Literature Director's manner, throughout consistent with the administer- ing of poor law relief for the feckless and shifty who need handling with discipline, sedulously demonstrates how some parties believe literature should be directed.
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