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SOAK YOURSELF IN THE RUSSIANS' Caradoc Evans Remembered JACK GRIFFITH MAXIM GORKY'S PLAY, The Lower Depths, reminded me of some- thing Caradoc Evans once told me. He had just read a story I had written about a horse being killed in a coal-mine. It had been written at first hand, for I had almost been killed with the horse. 'Good God, Jack!' he exclaimed. 'This is a classic already! You should have been earning your living with your pen for the past five years!' He read it again, then added: 'Soak yourself in the Russians. Read all you can of them. Soak yourself in the Russians!' I realised at once how Caradoc had come to write My People and Capel Sion. They were imitation Russian stories about people who never existed except in the dark recesses of his mind. And he had put them into an imaginary country he called Wales. Knowing Caradoc's proficiency as a flatterer when he was out to get something he wanted, I accepted his praise with caution. There was nothing he could get out of me other than my taking part in his wife's play, Chapp ie- That's All. I had nothing else to give. And the only reason why I was being asked to act in Chappie was because I was the only available male taller than the leading lady. One can often find the way to a man's heart through his stomach, but a quicker and more reliable method is to flatter his-or her-vanity, something which Caradoc knew well and used to his advantage. After re-reading his works recently I could not help but wonder how much flattery he had used in order to make intelligent and otherwise soundly critical people accept his writings as literature. I am perplexed at the whitewashing and laboured apologies of the late Professor George H Green-for whom I have profound respect, affection and gratitude- gave to Caradoc and his stories in his introduction to the posthumous publication of The Earth Gives All and Takes All, seven short tales allegedly about Wales and claiming to have been written without bitterness.