THE MOVEMENT AND THE GROUP
SIR,--Mr. Philip Hobsbaum, in his letter in the Spectator, could not have chosen a more revealing phrase than 'a seminar in creative writing' to serve as the crux of his apologia for the poets of the Group. Anyone who has had experience of the creative writing seminars that proliferate in North American universities will know that nothing is less likely to produce worthwhile writing. Such courses spawn at best pastiche, at worst parody, of which- ever disciple-hungry authors dominate them. Whether or not doctrine and orthodoxy are imposed (as in the case of the Group, .Mr. Hobsbaum assures us, they are not) they must surely develop—by a pro- cess of selection.
Fortunately, groups, movements and -isms tend to go out of fashion. But in the meantime it would be a shame to leave readers believing that the finest of Britain's younger poets have all succumbed to the herd instinct. The finest are, as always, mavericks (to borrow a word of Dannie Abse's) who need no 25 Rugby Chambers, Rugby Street, WCI
Previous page
