SITWELL INSOLENCE

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 224, 21 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

SITWELL INSOLENCE

The studied insolence of that very curious literary family the Sitwells, and their original methods of publicity, are exemplified in a letter that Miss Edith Sitwell sends, through her secretary, to the "London .Mercury." The Sitwells have long held Mr. Squire and ail his works in contempt, and apparently Edith thought the time had come for another gesture. Her secretary writes: "I' am instructed by Miss Edith Sitwell to tell you that in former times a visit to her dentist meant the added pleasure of reading the 'London Mercury,' for that otheywise • invisible paper could always be found at his hospitable board. But for some time now it has been absent, and Miss SitwelPfeared that it was dead' —that is to say, more dead than usual. Judge, therefore, of her relief when she found a copy thrown away with a copy of the 'Financial Times' and the 'Undertakers' Gazette,' in a third-class compartment of the slow train from Woking. My dear sir, Miss Sitwell wants to know where you found Mr. Twitcliett (if he is not an inviolable secret). Miss Sitwell has heard of water-diviners, but had never heard of milk-and-water diviners until you developed this uncanny gift." Mr; Squire headed this: "Biit Why Take Slow Trains from Woking?" and added this footnote: ."We are.sorry that Miss Sitwell should be constantly! at the dentist's, but glad to find that he has not drawn all her teeth." It won't be the "Mercury" that will suffer in public estimation through this little encounter.