Well said, Elspeth!
Congratulations to Elspeth Sandys on her Comment piece in the December New Zealand Books, “In search of the ‘good’ writer”. My own choice of a good writer but not so good human being would have been Evelyn Waugh rather than Jean Rhys, but I am grateful for the Margaret Atwood quotation and would like both Elspeth and New Zealand Books to know that I shouted “Hear! Hear!” on finishing her column. I remember Denis Welch making much the same concluding point in an earlier issue (I forget which, and I quote from memory): “Writers should be read and not seen.”
Simon Cauchi
Titahi Bay