2110-5-11-21

The Times

THE TIMES PUBLISHING COMPANY, LTD., PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE, LONDON, E.C.4.

Easter Day Midnight

My dear John

You have written a very good book, if I may be allowed to say so with all respect & humility - the best yet, not excluding "Montrose", (though Michael prefers "the 39 steps"!) I have spent the last three days in reading it, with growing admiration, & it is so long since any new book gave me so much satisfaction that I feel I must be allowed to cumber your breakfast table with yet another tribute - not on any account to be answered - to be added to the heap which

are probably laid upon it daily by worthier students of Sir Walter. I have been through 3 phases myself. 1. I was compelled to read "Ivanhoe" & "the Talisman" for holiday tasks, & have blessed the institution ever since, for I went straight ahead & devoured the lot before I had been long at Eton. 2. I tried again at the age of ?30 - in South Africa - & could make no headway at all. 3. Ten years later I made another effort, found it no effort, (I think it was the Doctor who inspired me), & am becoming more & more of an addict! This chequered career gives me no claim to be a critic, even if I could find anything to criticize, but it gives me just enough to know how good a book it is.

Yours ever

Geoffrey Dawson