Bookend
Published by Sidgwick and Jackson, The Professionals, lain Scarlet's study of prostitution, is a perfectly respecable book, recently reviewed in the Spectator book pages by Reg Gadney. But it has caused a certain amount of merriment at the expense of Lord Longford, one of the directors of Sidgwick and Jackson (and now engaged on putting the finishing touches to his report on pornography) not least because of its cover which illustrates a girls' legs in fishnet tights against a bright red background. Lord Longford's comment on this at the time was revealing. "A year ago I would have been shocked," he said, "but I've seen so much shocking stuff in the meantime that I let it through without complaint."
By the time the paperback was ready to be designed, he was more awake to the dangers of moral corruption. New English Library, who distribute the paperback, put forward two designs for the cover showing a girls' torso with the book's title printed across her. Lord Longford wasn't having any. He finally accepted a plain cover edged with a frilly border, rather similar to the paperback cover of Fanny Hill.
The Literary Editorship of the New Statesman must be causing Anthony Howard some considerable worry at the moment. After attempting to sack Anthony Thwaite, he was forced by the newlyformed union chapel on the magazine to compromise and offer Thwaite a twomonth probationary stint. Thwaite might well have accepted this, despite its somewhat humiliating overtones, in the hope that he could arrive at a modus vivendi with the new editor. But it was made quite clear to Thwaite that a replacement would be coming in September.
All this time, Thwaite has been on sabbatical leave at the University of East Anglia. There is nothing he can do except sit back and take an ironical satisfaction in the rumours circulating about his successor — to the effect that Francis Wyndham, Francis Hope, John Gross and even Ian Hamilton have been approached by Anthony Howard and turned the offer down. None of this of course makes life any easier for Elizabeth Thomas, Anthony Thwaite's extremely good assistant who is carrying on in his absence.
Hutchinson's is a thriving company at the moment, and there seems every reason to hope that the appointment of Charles Clark as Managing Director, in succession to Sir Robert Lusty, will do nothing to alter this. By training a barrister, Clark is rumoured to have, as the phrase goes, "one of the most incisive minds in publishing," and he certainly has a reputation for ruthlessness. He built up Penguin Education to give it one of the most interesting of any educational lists in publishing, and brought out a number of titles which would otherwise have been taken on as Pelicans or Penguin Specials. At thirtyeight he is about the same age as Christopher Dolley, and has presumably decided that there isn't room for two rising stars in the same company.
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