John Lucas (Other lives, 19 January) was my poetry editor for more than 20 years. I greatly valued his editorial input, which consisted of a few queries and suggestions in his spidery pencil-writing in the margins of manuscripts, always respectful and with an understanding of what I had tried to convey. A question mark sent me back to work, making me see where other changes were needed in places he hadn’t marked. I will always be grateful for his intuitive guidance.
His letters were kind, encouraging and enthusiastic, signed off with his customary “All the best, in haste”.
Christine McNeill
As one of those “established but unfashionable” poets referred to in Michael Eaton’s account of John Lucas, I should like to express my thanks for the care and consistent support that John, as publisher of Shoestring Press, always brought to my work.
As captain of the Nottingham University Staff cricket XI, for whom I occasionally turned out, he could be less patient and forgiving. “If you can’t score some bloody runs,” he once shouted, on my playing yet another forward defensive prod, “for God’s sake get out and let in someone who can!”
John Harvey
