Dame Reb
ecca West In our issue dated 3 December 1977 we published a review by Alastair Forbes of Dame Rebecca's book Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (which was originally published in October 1942 and had recently been republished by Macmillans) and also of A Celebration, a recently published collection of Dame Rebecca's writings. In the course of this review Mr Forbes forcibly expressed his disagreement with the description of certain personalities and accounts of events in wartime Yugoslavia, described in the Epilogue of Black Lamb and Grey Falcon. Dame Rebecca of course accepts that"Mr Forbes was entitled in his review to give his opinion about the people and events referred to in her book, and indeed, the views expressed by her. However, in the course of his criticism, Mr Forbes alleged that Dame Rebecca's original account, compiled in wartime England, was bogus, and he implied that it had been written recklessly or in bad faith. There were no grounds for these suggestions and we apologise for having made them. The Implication was entirely unintended. Mr Forbes also attributed to Dame Rebecca the composition of 'self-indulgent digressions about Nazi obsessions with human waste products'. Dame Rebecca has composed no such digression. She once referred to the Nazis as 'maniacs who plastered history with the cruelty which is the waste product of man's moral nature, as maniacs on a smaller scale plaster their bodies and clothes with their excreta.' We apologise for this unwarranted slur on her.
Mr Forbes further commented that Dame Rebecca had 'missed the point' about the William Joyce trial and appeal. He said that the point was that Joyce's appeal had been dismissed 'for reasons not of Law but of the State' and that this was now 'fully confirmed by the publication of documents and memoirs.' While the basis for the decision in the appeal is a matter of argument, we accept that no documents or memoirs have been published which show that Dame Rebecca's view of the case was misconceived and regret the suggestion to the contrary.
In extending this apology to Dame Rebecca we are pleased to repeat Mr Forbes's description of her in the same review as 'most admirable of writers and critics.'
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