Peter Oborne (An education from the master columnist of Fleet Street, 1 September) refers to Philip Hope-Wallace as being “Guardian opera critic” and one of a Fleet Street gallery of “brilliant eccentrics”. This designation omits the fact that the versatile Hope-Wallace was also, and more pervasively, the Guardian’s theatre critic, for very many years. He only retired when Michael Billington took over in 1971.
Plenty of mature readers will recall Hope-Wallace’s elegantly concise theatre reviews with admiration and amusement, even those of us who did not agree with his pretty conservative views. That terrific critic of the Times from 1963 to 1989 Irving Wardle still speaks of Hope-Wallace’s ability – in his heyday – to go immediately to the phone after seeing a play and dictate a perfectly formed review to a Guardian copytaker – straight off. He was a fabulous man all round.
Nicholas de Jongh
London
