28 APRIL 1950, Page 20

Bishop Henson's Autobiography - .

is much to be hoped that no one will be deterred from reading the third volume of Bishop Hensley Henson's Retrospect of an Unimportant Life, or be guided in his estimate of the writer, by Canon Adam Fox's review of it in the Spectator of April 21st. Canon Fox's read- ing of this book must have been very casual, since he expends a whole Faragraph in attacking the use in the title, of the word " unimportant" which the Bishop justifies in his preface: "A life may be unimpoftant and yet significant. . . . It may incidentally provide a key to events in which the author, albeit personally inconsiderable and prattically ineffective, was intimately concerned." And again, as to the Bishop's success or otherwise, Canon Fox is forestalled by the words of the preface: " All turns on the meaning of the word. I have never regarded professional advancement, whether in Church or State, as equivalent to success in any genuine sense." For the Bishop, only effectiveness was success. He was generous hearted. Not by chance did his last appoint- ment to Westminster come from Winston Churchill, and as the offer of an opportunity ,for valuable war work.—Yours faithfully,

. The Principal's House, Ripon Hall, Oxford. L. DE C. RICHARDSON.