Finally … the competition result revealed …
Finally, late yesterday afternoon, I got hold of Idle Tom the Publisher. Finally I was able to discover who was the UK’s Young Publisher of the Year 2008.
"How did you get on?" I asked Idle Tom.
"Lost again," he said. Sounding a bit flat. "Lost it to some woman who produces Manga Shakespeare."
"Manga Shakespeare? What the hell’s Manga Shakespeare?
"Kind of cartoon Shakespeare. It’s big in Japan."
"Well … tough break to lose out to a cartoonist. I mean I wouldn’t even consider that to be proper publishing anyway."
"Hmmm."
"So how many years have you had a stab at it now?"
"Three."
"A hat-trick! Well at least that’s something to celebrate!"
"Always the bridesmaid, never the bride." He was sounding a bit mopey, by now. Not like him at all.
I tried to cheer him up.
"Hey Tommy! You’re not going to start blubbing on me are you now? Listen mate, you’ve probably got loads more years yet. Maybe they didn’t want to give it to you because you’re still a whippersnapper."
"Possibly."
"Anyway, how old do you have to be before they finally stop you entering this competition?"
"Thirty five."
"Thirty five! You’ve got more than a decade! Probably more! They couldn’t possibly have given it to you when they had a load of veterans who were on their last shot."
"Yeah. But still … it would have been nice."
"Tommy - you just hold on tight to that acceptance speech of yours. It’ll sound all the better for being left to mature for another five or six years."
"Five or six? You reckon I’ll have to wait that long?"
"Well … in my book, even 35 is pretty young."