SIR,—Mr. Carlisle says that `Mr. Evelyn Waugh's article is the
worst example of bad manners to be granted space in your columns since the Sitwell correspondence.' I do not recollect the subject of the Sitwell correspon- dence, but I would like to say here and now that it is no wonder if elderly writers become bad-tempered. Dogs which are constantly baited turn savage, and writers are supposed to be more highly strung than dogs. I am not as famous as Mr. Waugh, but nobody would believe the extent to which I am teased and tortured by strangers. Personally I have no complaint against journalists who in my ex- perience always ask for an appointment and are quite ready to take 'No' for an answer. It is the unemployed bore who drives me mad. He writes, he telephones, he even surges into my flat, unannounced, through the french windows.
It so happens that my nerves are rather strong, but in the end they will probably give way and then another example of ill manners may find itself, Sir, in your post-bag.—Yours faithfully,
7 Rue Monsieur VII, Paris
NANCY MITEORD
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