Dear readers
Sir: As a regular reader of the SPECTATOR (which was getting so boring I had to stop for a few weeks) I write to say 'welcome' Mr Gale. I thank you for having back Auberon Waugh and continuing with dear Professor Brogan. But must you be so 'with it' as to have the same disagreeable a la Searle portraits which are featured every- where and are too distasteful, not funny, overworked and unspon- taneous. The little drawings at the top of the Letters and Political page are delightful, again a la New Yorker but there is nothing wrong with that as they are of such high quality. Why not more? Why is it that English cartoon- ists are so heavy-handed? Could it be that our Europeans (now that we don't have the seventeen types) understand political satire? Another why—must Mr Heath be permitted to leave out of his government our two best brains— Mr Aubrey Jones and Mr Enoch Powell without a few more than usually forceful words from you if you agree.
R. Sandes 23 Eresby House, Rutland Gate, London sw7
Sir: May I suggest one final alter- ation to the SPECTATOR? Could you, in the future, provide us with the credentials of those of your fiction reviewers with whose accomplishments we cannot ex- pect to be familiar?
Could you tell us for example what books Mr Peter Hawkes has written and under what name he has written them. I suspect that he is the last wit left on earth but would like some actual evidence of this. Certainly it is difficult to imagine anyone not pre-eminently gifted setting about Mr Snow with quite such gusto.
W. B. Hepburn The Old Vicarage, Shalford, Surrey
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