Rob Withers Defends his Review of Poor Tom's Revenge

[The original review appeared in Envoi 134 and was responded to in Envoi 135 by Emma Lee and myself. Huw Watkins' response is published on this site.]

What follows was emailed to me on Oct 21, 2003, with the heading: Justice.

Dear Mr Fewster,

I would be obliged if you would publish this response to the attack made on me personally by Huw Watkins on your web site. Also, you will know that your link to my review, "Repellent, amoral" is misleading since this is a characterisation of one poem and you have written that you agree with that characterisation. Thank you.

Rob Withers

Rob Withers then addresses himself to Huw Watkins.

Dear Huw Watkins,

I know that one cannot reliably tell from their poetry what a person is like but I have the sense that Brian Fewster is fair-minded with a concern for justice. Therefore I am confident that he will have the decency to publish this in full alongside your attack on me on the web. Only in that way will there be some chance for me to put straight your travesty of a review of me. That it is a personal attack you make clear from your title, which is not, as it should be, “Review of a Review” but “of a Reviewer.”

I do not attack you for failing completely to understand my review you read, since I think that you are unfamiliar the genre. I think this because you demonstrate a systematic misreading, in which you take it for granted that a review must be about covering a book and can only be either praise or criticism. Interestingly, most poets seem to use this futile bi-polar logic in a way that artists do not. Few contemporary painters would suppose that to point out that their work was not evaluative was a criticism. Indeed, most would take this as obvious. In fact it is clear from what you write that you agree with me on this point about Brian’s work, that he does not evaluate but leaves that to the reader, since you labour to establish precisely what I tried to add concisely. Your disagreement is illusory.

Since it is likely that most who will read your harsh attack on me are likely also to be poets with a traditional lens for examining reviews, perhaps it would be helpful if I tried quickly to summarise what was going on, and to explain the source of your misunderstandings, in a series of bullet points.

Rob Withers

When I received this I was on my way out to catch a train, and felt that I could not agree to the request without speaking to Huw Watkins, so I sent the following acknowledgement:

"I'm in London for the next few days and will reply more fully in due course."

Rob Withers' reply was immediate and was as follows:

Dear Mr Fewster,

No need to reply. In fact, I have found including your poetry in my review such an unexpectedly unpleasant experience that I wish now to forget about it and would very much appreciate it if you would not communicate further.

Yours sincerely,

R. Withers

An open letter to Rob Withers

Return to Brian Fewster's poetry site