5 NOVEMBER 1965, Page 7

The Kleptomaniacs I've written before in this notebook about tan

Unreliability of the postal service, but the latest, most fantastic example is, I submit, an egg-sized jewel in this depressing GPO showcase. The tale is quite simple—a new novel by Mr. David Lodge has had publication postponed by a month be- cause all the review copies were lost by the GPO! Surely inefficiency on this vast scale is not a mat- ter of chance—is there, we often wonder aloud in this office as our own review copies regularly disappear, a network of secret, predatory bibliophiles in Mr. `Big' Benn's ramshackle de-