Sir: Mr Waugh's concern ('Another voice', 10 December) regarding the
subliminal ef- fect of W.L. George's Children of the Mor- ning on William Golding's Lord of the Flies might have deepened had he referred to Ambrose Bierce's (6.1842) short story 'Oc- currence at Owl Creek' vis-d-vis Pincher Martin. The similarity mutatis mutandis of the theme and the denouement which is the essence of both stories was even remarked upon by my schoolboy son some years ago.
Of less interest to Mr Waugh might be my interpretation of Pincher Martin based on the very last line of that book which I consider crucial both to the story and to its similarity to 'Occurrence at Owl Creek.' In fact, there was no mid-Atlantic rocky islet except in the last despairing images of the eponymous anti-hero. I should be reluctant to concede that my interpretation held over many years was uniquely wrong.
Evelyn Hornsby
Old Maltongate, Malton, N. Yorkshire
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