Diary – 17 May 2003

The trouble with holidays is that when you return there is the same work to do and that much less time in which to do it; as well as no time at all, in my case, to acquire a birthday present for my wife or take the limping, mewing cat to the vet. My immediate problem as literary editor here was to decide which reviews to print and which to hold. As a general theory I feel that enthusiasm remains interesting, while contempt had better be dished out immediately. My own first book received friendly reviews and then a month later one that only in the last paragraph committed itself with ‘This deadly biography….’ I had thought the ordeal was over. A few years ago it was simpler; there was a publication date, you nagged reviewers to provide copy for as soon after that as possible, and they replied in a version of the old saying ‘Do you want it good or do you want it Tuesday?’ Now no one pays any attention to all that and if you do, you are left woefully behind.