Mr Greene's Restoration
Sir: Alexander Chancellor is mistaken in saying in the Notebook (30 January) that Graham Greene has never written a work of non-fiction other than travel books. Ten years ago I had the satisfaction and privilege of persuading Mr Greene to ex- tract from his bottom drawer, where it had been lying neglected since the early Thirties (when the subject was considered 'un- suitable' by his publishers), a biography of the Restoration rake, the second Earl of Rochester. Mr Greene published it with the Bodley Head in 1974 under the title of Lord Rochester's Monkey. And very good read- ing it was. Curiously, it was a review by Mr Greene, in an issue of the Spectator some time in the late Thirties, of a book by Clif- ford Bax on Nell Gwyn, that first informed me of his unusual knowledge of the Restoration period.
John Hadfield
2 Quay Street, Woodbridge, Suffolk
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