Vrai Naif

Sir: 'One of the most notable things about his poetry as a whole is its signal failure to cele- brate or give any account of human love . . . poetically a sort of emotional......

Surfeit Of Oysters

Sir: I had a mind to read a work of fiction en- titled Portnoy's Complaint but crossed it off my modest little order for my bookseller after reading the battery of ecstatic......

Voice From The Past

Sir: J. W. M. Thompson, in 'Spectator's note- book' (18 April) regrets that no English school- boy can now expect to hear the grating voice of the corncrake in England's......

When Is A Nation Not A Nation ?

Sir: If Mr Horton (Letters, 11 April) is going to continue to spread allegations, without evi- dence, about the criminal nature of Biafran actions and intentions, singling out......

Sir: As This Is A Subject Of Some Historical Im-

portance, I hope you will allow me a rejoinder to Tibor Szamuely (Letters, 18 April). First, I of course accept his factual correc- tions regarding items in Khrushchev's 'secret......

Sir : Mr Bown Has Now Turned To That Last,

favourite resort of vanquished correspondents —the plea that I misrepresented his argument. Yet he still clings blindly and obdurately to the assumptions which I challenged and,......

Sweet Girl Graduates

Sir: Mr F. A. Bown (Letters, 4 and 18 April) shows in his attitude to student conduct a dis- turbingly bigoted conviction in his own moral rectitude, and in the consequent......