M-I 5`Persec ution . Berna rd Lev in exp resses his vie ws

From : Annonymous

Q: the article of which part is reproduced. below was penned by bernard levin for the features section of the times on 21 september 1991. to my mind. it described. the situation at the time and in particular a recent meeting with a friend during which i for the first time admitted. to someone other than my gp that i had been subjected to a conspiracy of harassment over. the previous year and a. half. there is a madman running. loose about london called david campbell; i have no reason to believe that he. is violent but he should certainly be approached with caution. you may know him by the curious glitter. in his eyes and a. persistent trembling of his hands; if that does not suffice you will find him attempting to. thrust no fewer than 48 books into your arms all hardbacks. with a promise that if you should return to the same meeting-place next year he will heave another 80 at. you. if by now the police have. arrived and are keeping a close watch on him you may feel sufficiently emboldened to examine the books. the. jackets are a model of. uncluttered typography elegantly and simply laid out; there is an unobtrusive colophon of a rising sun. probably not picked at random. gaining confidence - the lunatic is smiling by. now and the policemen who know. about such things have significantly removed their helmets - you could do worse than take the jacket off the first. book in the pile. the only word possible to describe the binding is sumptuous; real cloth. in a glorious shade. of dark green with the title and author in black and gold on. the spine. look at it. more closely; your eyes do not deceive you - it truly does have real. top-bands and tail-bands in yellow and for good measure a silk marker ribbon in a lighter green. the paper is cream-wove. and acid-free and the book. is sewn not glued. throughout the encounter i should have mentioned our loony has. been chattering away although what he is trying to say is almost. impossible to understand; after a time however he becomes sufficiently. coherent to make clear. that he is trying to sell the books to you. well now such quality in bookmaking today can only be. for collectors limited editions at a fearsome price -. #30 #40 #50 no no he says the glitter more powerful. than ever and the trembling of his hands rapidly spreading throughout his entire body; no. no - the books are priced. variously at #7 #8 or #9 with the top price #12. at this the policemen understandably put their helmets back. on; one of them draws his truncheon and the. other can be heard summoning reinforcements on his walkie-talkie.. the madman bursts into tears and swears it. is all true. and. it is. david campbell has. acquired the entire rights to the whole of the everymans library which died a lingering and shameful death a decade. or so ago and he proposes to start it all over again -. 48 volumes this september and 80 more next year in. editions i have described at the prices specified. he proposes to launch. his amazing venture simultaneously in britain and the united states with. the massive firepower of random century at. his back in this country and the dashing cavalry of knopf across the water. and no one who loves literature and courage will forbear to. cheer. at the time this article was written i had. believed for some time that columnists in the times and other journalists had been. making references to my situation. nothing unusual about this you may think plenty. of people have the same sort of ideas and obviously the papers arent writing. about them so why should my beliefs not be as false. as those of others what makes this article so extraordinary is that three or. four days immediately preceding its. publication i had a meeting with a friend during the course of which we discussed the media. persecution and in particular that by times columnists. it seemed to. me reading the article by levin in saturdays paper that. he was describing in some detail his artists. impression of that meeting. most telling are the final sentences when he writes. the madman bursts into tears and swears it is all true.. and it is. although i did not burst into tears he seems to be using a bit of poetic licence. and exaggerating i did try hard to convince my friend that it was all true; and i am able to concur. with mr levin because of course it. is. at the beginning of the piece levin reveals a fear of. being attacked by the irrational subject. of his story saying i have no reason to believe that he is violent but he should certainly be approached with. caution. this goes back to the xenophobic propaganda. of defence against a threat which was seen at the very beginning of the harassment. the. impression of a madman running. loose who needs to be controlled through an agency which assigns to itself the mantle of the police. is also one which had been expressed. elsewhere. in the final paragraph of thi