Burst of Verse

As so often happens in the best-regulated societies, Great Britain is currently undergoing a spate of court cases over obscenity in books. Last week seven of the nation's bestselling authors (including Somerset Maugham, Bertrand Russell and J. B. Priestley) took recourse to that most British of responses: a joint letter of protest to the editor of the London Times. "It would be disastrous to English literature," they wrote, "if authors had to write under the shadow of the Old Bailey if they failed to produce works suitable for the teen-ager."

The impressive array of signers was not half as effective as one burst of verse from Humorist Sir Alan Herbert, who as an M.P. once kidded and cajoled the House of Commons into relaxing Britain's primitive divorce laws. In the Sunday Graphic, Sir Alan penned this answer to a lawyer who asked a jury: "Would you give this book to your daughter of 25?"

She's not an infant or an elf; I let her choose her books herself, But, since you ask me, I should not Give her a race horse, or a yacht, A billiard table, or a course Of easy lectures on divorce, Though none of these should I describe As dangers to the British tribe. Nor should I draw my child's attention To certain bits I will not mention In Holy Writ, in Shakespeare's plays, And other works of olden days. I should not give her Law Reports (O dear, the things they say in courts!) . . .

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