[Ted Noffs [Theodore Delwin Noffs], ‘Uniting Church’ minister and social activist.] Typed Letter Signed, informing the editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’ Sally Emerson that the Charles Prince of Wales described it as ‘the best magazine in the world’.

See his entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography. Despite the Prince of Wales’s endorsement, the novelist Sally Emerson (b. 1954) proved to be the last editor of ‘Books and Bookmen’, which followed the suicide of the proprietor Philip Dosse of Hansom Books. (See her article ‘Death of a Bookman’, in Standpoint magazine, October 2018.) 2pp, 4to. On two leaves stapled together, the first with letterhead in blue ink with biblical quotation and illustration of a cross and a crown of thorns. Signed ‘T Noffs’. Headed ‘NOT FOR PUBLICATION’, the letter begins: ‘I thought you would be interested to know of an incident at a small party given for His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales at Government House, Canberra, on Monday last.’ Noff mentioned to the Prince that he had just read a Books and Bookmen article on ‘Royal Hagiographers’ by Anthony Holden, and quoted from it. ‘Prince Charles was amazed to discover that someone as far away as Australia read “Books and Bookmen” which he regards as the best magazine in the world. He made this statement to myself and the Australian Treasurer, the Hon. John W. Howard. I agreed with him and we subsequently discussed the article and he indicated how pleased he was that he had written an article for your magazine. During our conversation I sensed a considerable interest in writing, which, because of the excellence of his ideas, I suggested he should pursue.’ All of this is ‘beside the point’ as far as Noff is concerned, and he proceeds to explain his reasons for communicating an account of the incident.