The Green Road into the Trees

Sir, Hugh Thomson [yesterday in The Times] rightly questions the wisdom of the coalition Government’s decision to cut its support for improving the setting and building of a new visitor centre at Stonehenge, an icon of our national heritage and the centre-piece of the ‘cultural offer’ pitched to the International Olympics Committee for 2012. The casual saving of £10 million places Stonehenge under threat as a World Heritage Site of outstanding universal value.

The news is felt all the more painfully since this is now the third time the project has been cancelled and it is estimated that £45 million to £55 million has already been spent abortively in developing these proposals. More than £25 million has been promised from other sources including the Heritage Lottery Fund. Added to this, the visitor centre has already received planning permission. So to make a saving of £10 million at this advanced stage makes no sense, either financially or strategically. It would be cheaper to finish the job now, rather than cancel and have to start again.

From: John Pettifew Clark

To: Crowmarsh, Eustace

Subject: Hugh Thomson

Dear Eustace

Thank you for sending me the MS of Hugh Thomson’s The Green Road into the Trees.

I will post you the copy-edited manuscript by surface mail. I have followed normal UK publishing practice and Random House house style in my editing and instructions to the typesetter.

Meanwhile, in addition to the usual solecisms and stylistic quirks that I see all too often from writers who have not had a classical education, I did want to raise a few concerns.

You should be aware that along the way, on what is ostensibly a walking book across England, Thomson manages to alienate a great many of his potential readers.

To be specific, and listing them in order of occurrence, he insults or makes gratuitous reference to: vegetarians, William Dalrymple (who is the favourite writer of most aunts in England), Paul McCartney, the Prince of Wales, publicans with beards, model aeroplane groups, the custodians of Stonehenge, all three of the major political parties (comparing the Liberal Democrats at one point to Pagans), rentier farming landlords, the Church of England, the neo-pagan group ‘Dragon Order’, gastropubs, bird-watchers, the army on Salisbury Plain, aristocrats, archaeologists, minicab drivers, hunters of wood pigeons, the Vikings (who, we should remember, have living descendants), postmodern architects, Amazon and Katie Price (also known, I believe, as ‘Jordan’); along with numerous others.

It is possible that there is some overlap between these groups (vegetarians, for instance, may be Paul McCartney fans, given his association with Linda; many aunts who read William Dalrymple are likely to be members of the Church of England), but it still seems a high-risk marketing strategy, and risks offending many.

Moreover, just to ensure that he makes a clean sweep of the majority of the population, he takes a sideswipe at married Englishwomen – and their husbands as well.

Nor has he taken his own advice and travelled with an animal (a dog, or perhaps like Stevenson, a donkey), which would have ensured commercial success; the British public like to read about animals, and they are less liable to involve contentious issues of class or history.

I would suggest that in future it might be safer to commission him to write a book about a less populated part of the world, or at least one that has fewer special interest groups, or readers. I see from the author biography that he has travelled to Afghanistan. Why not send him there? Or even better, the Empty Quarter of Arabia. It worked for Thesiger.

Best wishes – and thank you again for that excellent lunch at the Garrick.

Yours

John

John Pettifew Clark

PS I will enclose a hard copy of this with the manuscript. Remember to take it out!