Letters: For writer's block, read lazy ...

A FEW points Blake Morrison missed in his attack on John Grisham's profitable productivity:

1. Would regularly publishing authors necessarily produce better books if they took more time?

2. Isn't a deadline a spur that can get the writer going?

3. Who pays the bills while the author contemplates his or her navel and struggles for deathless prose?

4. Do professionalism and efficiency automatically mean "speedwriting" that precludes creative achievement?

Blake Morrison presumably wrote this piece to butter his bread. Would it have been better written if it had appeared next week?

The Crime Writers' Association must thank him, however, for including crime and thriller writers alongside mainstream novelists. When the first crime novel appears on the Booker short list, will Mr Morrison complain that professional and efficient writers should be excluded?

JANET LAURENCE

Crime Writers' Association

Somerton, Somerset