James Agate's
address:-

14 Doughty Street.

W.C.1.

Holborn 8536.

18th March, 1935.

Dear Mr. van Thal,

Forgive me not writing sooner. James has
been very much himself just lately, and I haven't had
a moment to myself at all.

I should, in any case, have acknowledged the
copy of "David Copperfield" and would indeed have done so,
had I not been chagrined to find the edition one which
I loathed and detested as a schoolboy. Dickens without
Phiz is for me just like champagne without it!

I hope you will not set me down as on this
account ungrateful. What is the good of me pretending
that I don't think this particular unillustrated edition
both measly and stodgy?

The immediate point, however, as you will agree
is my own unillustrated prose. The two tales already
written are in the hands of my barrister-friend who is
still on circuit somewhere. I shall borrow his copy
and let you see it as soon as ever I can.

Let me thank you again for your great kindness
and courtesy. Having encroached on these, I now appear
to be venturing on your forbearance as well. But I
promise to set to work to please you, as soon as I get
a little leisure to work myself into the vein.

Yours ever sincerely,

P.S. I hope you were agreeably bowled over by the
conclusion of "Great Expectations".

85 AYLESBURY END
BEACONSFIELD, BUCKS

9th April, 1973

# BABY BITES SNAKE'S HEAD OFF

By RAY KENNEDY
in Johannesburg

A 13-MONTH-OLD boy bit the head off a deadly snake at his Johannesburg home at the weekend.

Pieter Pretorius found the puff adder in the garden. When it reared up to strike he grabbed it by the neck, put its head in his mouth and bit hard. The snake died.

Maid rushed in

His mother, Mrs Anne Pretorius, said: "The maid came rushing in screaming: 'He's bitten a snake.' I thought she had it the wrong way round.

"But when I rushed out to the porch where he had been playing I nearly died. Pieter was sitting there giggling, with the bleeding snake hanging from his mouth. Then, while I was still gasping, he took it out and bit it again in the back of its head. The poor thing never had a chance."

Caro Bertuccio,

Try hard not to be so on the telephone Monday-morning! — so affirmatively monosyllabic — next time I come to see you — next Monday morning!

After I finished reading the "Daily Telegraph" on Picasss this morning, I turned the page and read this news item. Read it through, to the very last sentence — of seven words. This is a good example of what I think is called anacoluthon — or divine ind consequence.

"Maria Pedilla", last night at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, or at least hear it at home.

A propos Picasso no one in any of the obits. has had the wit to quote the great artist's superb remark in Françoise Zelot's book (which he tried vainly to suppress): -