SCIENCE BOOKS: CREATIVE WRITING AT LANCASTER

On 4 February, Rebecca Swift's article about creative writing groups stated: "Undoubtedly the establishment of the first Creative Writing course in England at the University of East Anglia in 1970 ... has done much to erode the belief that real writers don't use teachers or groups. In recent years, several more University courses have sprung up, at Lancaster, Sheffield and St Andrews."

Professor David Craig of the School of Creative Arts at Lancaster University has written to us to point out that Lancaster launched its creative writing courses in the same year as UEA, and that it developed the first university department and the first Chair in the subject. Its alumni have been widely published. Professor Craig writes: "We have suffered under ignorance of our work for years ... which makes us all the more determined to get our dues." We are pleased to set the record straight.