Collet's Bookshops
Sir: In your issue of 17 July, under the heading 'Fooling Foyles', Richard West thinks fit to make a number of false allega- tions about us. He refers to our 'Bookshop'. In fact we have a number of Bookshops, three of them in Charing Cross Road. One of those three is our Penguin Bookshop. The other two, while specialis- ing in left-wing and general progressive literature, sell a broad spectrum of books, as Richard West could not have failed to observe if he had visited them with his eyes and mind open. Thus none of those three shops could be in any way correctly describ- ed as a 'Communist Bookshop'.
Our Bookshops survive becuse of the sales made there, and not because of alleged slavery elsewhere; trade with foreign coun- tries is carried on by our holding company.
As for the 'few strikes' referred to, we have in our long history as booksellers had one strike only. That was of very brief dura- tion, a matter of hours only, over the resignation of a shop manager, some 15 years ago. Collet's have always had very good relations with USDAW.
Richard West's sympathy for Foyles is one thing. His attempt to justify it by a gratuitous attack on us is despicable. Would you please publish this letter with equal prominence to that given to his article.
Eva Skelley Managing Director, Collet's,
Denington Estate, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire
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