36 H P M
My dear Derek,
Many thanks yrs 30/3.
Glad you liked the Cecil Salkeld piece. He
was a remarkable man but,as you see,fulfilled
only some of his potential. Journalists always
get it wrong. The title of the chapter from
which the extract was taken is “A Season in
Dublin"; not the title of the book which xx
remains
"The Sash My Father Wore". As it happens I've
taken on morning teaching at a school round the
corner - Davies,Laing and Dick,the tutors -
as otherwise I can't xxxx cope with the cost
of living and the xxxxxx falling off of review
books. My life-long problem: can I afford to be
a writer ? can I afford to drain my xxxx energy
in teaching which is not really my vocation
though I enjoy it in small doses ? But one just
can't depend on reviewing because of the way the
work fluctuates. I hope you have not been hit by
the decline in the output of new titles. I think
what wd solve my problem, for 1 year anyway,wd be
one of these x writer in residence jobs. But
unless I can get a creative book (i.e. poems)
published,I haven’t much chance.
No news from Gollancz,but Peter Fallon
of Gallery Press has written to ask me to let
him have a complete set of Fox mss. Which I’ve
done. I think it depends on whether he likes
them enough plus his availability of capital.
I've had that poem about George Best in the
latest H.U. though a copy hasn't yet arrived.
Roy apparently joins me there - the first time
for him. Until now,he's always been prejudiced
