I am not a fan of J. Betjeman but how enjoyable to see Jagdeep Singh Gandhi's response turning up not in a specialist Medical Humanities journal but in THEBMJ. (Although I am a fan of THEBMJ Journal of Medical Humanites). A fascinating book by Al Alvarez is 'The Writer's Voice'. He has used extracts from Jung, Freud, Woolf, Coleridge and others to claim that the work of a writer is to find, not just a style but their authentic voice which reflects the individual's true identity or self as Jung would have it. It is something which can be recognised by readers.
J Betjeman achieved that but it could be said that some of the contributors and responders to the BMJ have too!
Rapid Response:
Re: Poet scorner
I am not a fan of J. Betjeman but how enjoyable to see Jagdeep Singh Gandhi's response turning up not in a specialist Medical Humanities journal but in THEBMJ. (Although I am a fan of THEBMJ Journal of Medical Humanites). A fascinating book by Al Alvarez is 'The Writer's Voice'. He has used extracts from Jung, Freud, Woolf, Coleridge and others to claim that the work of a writer is to find, not just a style but their authentic voice which reflects the individual's true identity or self as Jung would have it. It is something which can be recognised by readers.
J Betjeman achieved that but it could be said that some of the contributors and responders to the BMJ have too!
Competing interests: No competing interests