PATRICK O'BRIAN

Sir, - I have sometimes wondered if the day would ever come when I could read through a whole column by Kevin Myers without an…

Sir, - I have sometimes wondered if the day would ever come when I could read through a whole column by Kevin Myers without an involuntarily yell of pain. But then, on January 16th, Mr Myers claimed that he has been reading and praising the Aubrey Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian since their first appearance in 1970. It was a strange experience, rather like discovering that Ghengis Khan had been kind to animals all his life. Maybe he isn't such a bad guy after all, I thought.

It wore off, of course. But Mr Myers is right: Patrick O'Brian is indeed the inheritor of Joseph Conrad by sea and Jane Austen by land. He deserves far more critical attention than he has received. Go out and buy Master and Commander today, and settle down for an 18 volume voyage. - Yours, etc.,

Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544.