bout de papier, Vol. 14, No. 2 (1997) — Summer 1997 // Été 1997, p. 3
Editor:
I would like to compliment you on the excellence of the Spring edition of bout. Having spent some time on the editorial board, I know how difficult it is to obtain material that is neither self-serving nor pretentious. Too frequently, it seems, the opportunity for personal record of the unique, exhilarating, frustrating context of foreign service is wasted. This has never been the product of editorial will, only a reflection of what could be recruited as contribution.
The Spring issue is an excellent example of what bout can and should be. It combines humour and scholarship, reflection on the past and analysis of the contemporary, insightful comment and informed criticism; in other words, a brilliant collage of the foreign service experience. I hope you will be able to maintain this quality in future editions. To a great extent that will depend on the interest and generosity of colleagues. In any case, very well done!
Robert Burchill Ottawa
Editor:
Springtime makes us appreciate flowers; so let me offer a small bouquet to your magazine, which has for years provided a bright collection of literary blossoms in my life! You have done it again with your Spring 1997 issue, all the way from the daffodil-coloured cover photo — your photos are always good and the reproduction excellent — to the article on returning to Bucharest by Peter and Glenna Roberts, where we got double value through both of them commenting.
Having worked in the field of international development for many years, I may seem a little traitorous to my own kind to say that I have always found bout de papier more entertaining than the earnest tracts put out by various development agencies. And yet you maintain a really high standard of writing, achieved (no doubt) because so many of your authors practised their skills too privately in political reporting back to External during their foreign service careers. May I just enter a small plea? Find room for more book reviews! Lots of your subscribers have time to read good books now. If you cannot afford more pages, perhaps you could trim some of the longer articles — but not, of course, cut back on the like of Peter and Glenna Roberts.
Clyde Sanger Ottawa
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