Letters to the editor

Sir,

Further to Michele Field’s discussion of the defamation problem for the publisher in your last issue, may I amplify, and correct one or two points, her account of Currency’s brush with Mr Lloyd Davies, the former husband of Dorothy Hewett, over our publication of The Chapel Perilous and The Tatry Hollow Story.

While I make no question of Mr Davies’ sincerity in taking action, I am firmly of the opinion that nothing in either play could damage him (even if, as I strongly question, it could be taken to refer to him) in the eyes of any reasonable person. At the same time, the law concerning literary defamation is so unsatisfactory in its application to creative fiction (as opposed to purported factual reporting) that there was strong sympathetic support for the idea of a test case.