Anna Swan

Blake Morrison writes that certain elements of Kay Dick’s They remind him of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five: ‘The narrator even has a dog; its name and breed aren’t specified but I couldn’t help thinking of Timmy’ (LRB, 12 May). Kay did indeed have a dog named Timmy, who would have been her companion in 1977 when They was first published. I met them both in 1989, at their basement flat on...

Jenny Diski wonders how she should refer to Doris Lessing, who took her in when she was a teenager (LRB, 9 October). I think the term she is looking for is ‘guardian’, if not quite ‘guardian angel’.