KEEPING UP WITH THE RICES
Sin,—Forgive me. but I thought 'Keeping up with the Rices' by Christopher Hollis exceptionally silly. Why do middle-aged men of letters persist in affecting puzzled superiority when writing about Angry Young Men? Mr. Hollis says he wished he knew 'who the angry young men are, how many there are, and what they are angry about.' if he really wants an answer to his last question he could get one very easily by reading Declaration. Anyone who has read this book and still doesn't know what angry young men are angry about is, to put it baldly, a blind idiot. They are angry because England is still riddled with class- consciousness, because the Establishment still rules, because the English upper and middle classes tend to be ignorant, insensitive philistines, because English films are ghastly, because the English theatre means The Reluctant Debutante and Dry Rot, because the Conservative Government is ineffectual if not actually dangerous, because the English Elite, who should after all be educated, would rather read the Taller than the Spectator, and because the attitude of the English towards such venerated traditions as Royalty, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the BBC, etc., is un- healthy and in every way sickening. Whether it is naive and ridiculous to get angry about such things is, of course, another matter. But to deny that angry young men are angry about something is surely absurd.
It now gives me the very greatest pleasure to muddle Mr. Hollis still further by telling him that I was educated at Winchester, have a private income and the security and social position which this brings, have spent my whole life (such as it is) among the 'upper classes,' and whole-heartedly associate myself with every attitude expressed in Declaration (except those of Mr. Wilson and his chums). I would also suggest to Mr. Hollis that if he really wants to know how many angry young men there are he could do worse than read the Winter number of Gemini, which will at least tell him how many there are at Oxford and Cambridge.—Youts faithfully,
Magdalene College, Cambridge
WILLIAM DONALDSON
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