SAYERS (Dorothy L., 1893-1957, Detective Novelist, Creator of ‘Lord Peter Wimsey’)

Collection of a Typed Letter and an Autograph signed to ‘Dear Tom’ (Heron) the first typed letter saying that “Obviously the old boy has got been got at by his Suffragan, and severely ticked off for making offers off his own bat!...”, saying that she has sent “Stepney the enclosed acknowledgement, which, while committing us to nothing in particular, will, I hope, convey to him, if and when he gets it, the suggestion that a) he has been personally discourteous to me; b) ‘We are not amused’; there were after all witnesses to what was said, who may not be amenable to brain-washing. I have taken no notice of his last paragraph, which is very insolent, but forms no part of his ‘six points’...”, she says she has made an immediate acknowledgement “lest I should seem as discourteous as himself! You must admit that it is couched in very stately language...”, 1 side A4, 29th April 1957 and the Autograph Letter sends back his letter “in case you should wish to modify it in the light of our telephone conversation. I feel sure that the best thing is for you to get hold of Fr Pat, & find out for certain whether there were two conversations between him & John, or only one. If there were two, & he did in fact prevaricate to John about the Minute, then he must apologise for prevaricating - but NOT for anything else. The actual Resolution was passed by the Council... and that part of the matter lies between the Council & its secretary. ... John has demanded that the Minute should be expunged & an apology made... by the Council. Fr Pat cannot make any such apology on our behalf, & must not think he can do so. We passed the Resolution on the evidence... independently of any subsequent conversation between him & John... A conversation, about Fr Pat’s contribution, was reported by him to us at the Meeting.. & we acted upon that; nothing that took place afterwards can alter that fact, or relieve us of our responsibility for it, or relieve John of his responsibilty to us in the matter of the books. that is the point we have to stick to. If Fr Pat has since committed any personal stupidity in not being frank with John, he should admit it, & say he is sorry for the personal offence, but of that, we can have no official cognisance..”, 2 sides oblong 8vo., all on 24 Newland Street headed paper, 10th August

Tom Heron, the father of Patrick Heron the Artist, was a clothes manufacturer, pacifist, socialist and leading member of the Leeds Arts Club, founded the firm Cresta Silks in Welwyn Garden City. He was the original mind behind Utility Clothing during the war.
Patrick McLAUGHLIN (1909–1988) was an English Roman Catholic lay brother of the Order of Saint Benedict and a Christian writer, as well as a former Anglican priest until he became a Roman Catholic in 1962. Dorothy Sayer’s theology was traditionally Anglican with emphasis on doctrine. She worked with the Rev. Patrick McLaughlin at the St Anne's centre for Christian discourse and became in 1952 churchwarden of her London parish, St Thomas-cum-St Anne’s. McLaughlin and the Vicar of St Anne's Father Gilbert Shaw founded, and McLaughlin directed, the Society of St Anne's, which was active between 1942 and 1958 and which promoted links between the Church and the world of literature.

Item Date:  1957

Stock No:  38817      £750

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