No, you haven't misunderstood – I've muddled my letters. I'm thinking of the Eliot letter, which is of greater interest to me and apparently remains unpublished; I was wondering if you could say something new about it. Interesting, too, though, that despite the difference between his private and public statements concerning "the principle" of intellectual property in a play (is a dramatisation not also a play, by the way?), Dickens should refer in both letters to his reluctance to do so against a theatre manager he actually respects – Sam Lane of the Britannia Theatre. Principle outweighs respect, it would seem.

Thanks for the clarification, Leslie, about A Message from the Sea. You've uncannily almost succeeded in restoring an overlong sentence from my first draft, including the point about the contrast between Dickens's private uncertainty about what would happen if such a case went to court and his fairly graceful public assertion of principle. Does your reference to the dates mean that you've seen the unpublished letter for yourself, by the way?

It's now at Coventry Cathedral, I'm told, after languishing for some years in Battersea. The photos at the NPG give you odd glimpses of such works, ie not portrait busts, looming in the background..

Gary, I agree with you about the complexity of Britten's choral works - they're a great pleasure reserved for those who listen beyond the hit parade. There's a letter in this week's TLS, incidentally, from L. A. Yeats, who was present for the 1963 recording of the War Requiem; apparently, Britten wasn't "entirely pleased" to learn that the producer had secretly recorded his "comments, instructions to the orchestra etc", but was otherwise gracious and, perhaps unsurprisingly, made for a charismatic conductor of his own work.

Andrew, that's a sprightly recording of the Gloriana dances, isn't it? I particularly like the Pavan, with its sly modulations. Incidentally, the copy you bought came out, I think, before a complete and official recording of Gloriana was made. There's a long note about it in one of the books Ian Bostridge reviews. Gigi, I don't think you're wrong, but where Britten goes, Pears is bound to follow. It's chosen here for the personal connection more than the tonsil-stretching. A TLS facebook friend also recommends this, the Scherzo from the Ballad of Heroes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceBRaV12OME

Behold: one horrible junkie cover, added 5/11/12 . . .

PS Apparently, it's an oil painting, about 40 x 60 cm.

That makes sense of the comment from The Ant - thanks very much, Jan. The ODNB must have it wrong when it says that Aldridge was "generally described as tall and well built". If this is a painting of Aldridge, perhaps it's trying to convey something of his charismatic stage presence by making him a bit taller than he really was...

The review was written by the journalist, poet and classicist Charles William Brodribb, who was St Paul's School and then Oxford (at a different college) at the same time as Thomas. So a personal connection does seem possible, doesn't it? And maybe it's not a coincidence that Thomas wrote a couple of reviews for the TLS, of books with rural themes, around the same time.

Great idea – although all the indignant/supposed "Shakespeares" would probably need a room to themselves. At least these two would be able to pass the time a little more happily than the rest of them: http://cdm15082.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p252501coll1/id/4585

Thanks, of course, that makes sense of the "Victorian" bit - but I wouldn't have minded if the BBC report (linked above) had made it clearer that Paula Byrne was describing the copy rather than the original. . . .

As mentioned earlier - here's Alan Jenkins's review of the Beckett Letters: http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article812332.ece

Thank you very much, Neil, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed the review. As far as I know, Powys's original publisher, Chatto & Windus, took great care over the look of their books; Faber Finds look a little more functional... and no, they don't run to extra material (prefaces, etc). But they're handy to have around, as second-hand copies in (very) good condition can be quite expensive. Looking at the Faber edition of John Cowper Powys's "Autobiography", by the way, I see a few typos ("peoole" for "people", "interet" for "interest") - admittedly, very few, in the course of a long book - but perhaps that's an aspect of the way the text has been reproduced by Faber rather than a faithful representation of the original publication...

Thanks, Andrew; that distinction between "international" and "universal", with all that they imply, is going to be crucial to the debate next week, I suspect. But what do you mean when you say "properly universal"? See the opening paragraph of a review published in this week's TLS, by the way - Edmund Gordon on The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - for what may be a pertinent criticism of the "multicultural novel": http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article796831.ece

Dear Paul, Thanks very much for your comments on the new website - for accuracy's sake, we've amended the link for the contents page - good point!