A matter of time
Sir: I have no intention of entering into a debate with Nicholas de Jongh (Letters, 11 January) about which of us admired Jack Tinker's personality more or which of us will be proved right about posterity's view of his merits as a theatre critic.
But I do take exception to his claim, in defence of the present system of overnight notices after first nights, that the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard are 'now alone in habitually publishing first-night reviews the next day'. There is something breathtaking- ly impertinent about de Jongh as an evening-paper critic putting his task on all fours with that of the reviewers of any national daily paper. Tinker would have had at the most an hour or an hour and a half to dash out a considered, readable 400 words about some obscure play by Pinter, Stoppard or Beckett. De Jongh, as we know Only too well, with deadlines at 7 a.m. the next day, could take ten hours, if we were prepared to have a sleepless night, before transmitting our views to the paper.
Since Tinker's death the practice of overnight notices in the Daily Mail seems to have become erratic and haphazard. Are they having difficulty in finding someone capable of doing this onerous task? Perhaps Nicholas de Jongh, who gives the impres- sion the job is a piece of cake, might offer to help his sister paper, the Daily Mail, by vol- unteering to switch posts and take Tinker's place. I wonder how long he would last.
Milton Shulman
51 Eaton Square, London SW1
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