Thinly disguised
Sir: Brian Glanville (Letters, 24 May) claims that Cyril Connolly's aphorism, 'Imprisoned in every fat man a thin man is wildly signalling to be let out', was 'bor- rowed' from George Orwell's question, 'Has it ever struck you that there's a thin man inside every fat man, just as they say there's a statue inside every block of stone?'
This claim has often been made, but when Gavin Ewart did so in the London Magazine (December 1964), Connolly replied (February 1965) that when he wrote The Unquiet Grave (1944) he hadn't read Coming Up For Air (1939), and added that 'the expression was an old joke of mine and may have originated in a talk with him about our different physical conformities'. It is seldom noticed that the two remarks are actually saying different things, or that they are usually misquoted (as by Brian Glanville).
Nicolas Walter
88 Islington High Street, London Ni
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