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8, HEREFORD GARDENS, MARBLE ARCH, W.
27 June 1913
Dear John,
I speak seriously: that Thyrsis [ST: a parody of Matthew Arnold's Thyrsis by JB] of yours ought to be published. [double underline]
It will just give the finishing tap: the little shove of ridicule which topples the strained edifice.
Also it would be a man much bolder than Coeur du Lion or Crillon who ventured to bring an action for libel on it.
Nor do I think it is in fact
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libellous though I'm not a judge.
Not the "Spectator" I think? What? The Times wd. be best: I will read it to Robin [ST: Geoffrey Robinson] at Checkendon tomorrow evening.
Attend: I read it to two men who don't know you at all but are damn good critics - & then one of them after a second reading to himself said it was the thing he'd been waiting for all his life - the only fine modern political satire he'd ever
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read. The other agreed.
I read it to the solemn meeting of the Round Table Comm. last night & they shook their grave sides over it & one & all insisted on publication. Selborne wagged his hands till I thought they wd. have fallen off.
Yours ever & ever & ever & ever
F.S.O. [F.S. Oliver]
