Larkin on Ashbery? He is recorded as saying that he prefers strawberry, though it was ostensibly a joke about his own deafness. W.S, Gilbert on T.S. Eliot? Happy days!
No. 2807: hatchet job
In 1865 Henry James wrote a brutal review of Our Mutual Friend. You are invited to submit a hatchet job by a well-known author of your choice on a book or poem by another well-known writer (150 words/16 lines). Please email entries to
lucy@spectator.co.uk by midday on 17 July.