Madam, - May I compliment Carlo Gebler on his wonderful review of the British Poet Laureate Andrew Motion's autobiography, In the Blood: A Memoir of My Childhood (Books, September 9th)? It was a pleasure to read.
I was particularly struck by the sentence: "You have to feel to write and Motion can feel like the best of them but to write you also have to have a little sliver of ice in your heart, as Graham Greene said." I'm looking forward to reading the book. - Yours, etc,
JOE PATTON,
Chapelizod Court,
Dublin 20.
