Idle Tom gets lyrical
Not heard from Idle Tom the Publisher for a while. Could it be … could it possibly be that he’s in LURVE?
Finally, after a week of no calls, he makes contact. Or actually what occurred was that he deigned to answer one of my calls.
"Hello Tom, good morning," I said.
"And a very good morning to you Mr Coles on this most magical of days -"
"Magical? Is it really magical? The only magical thing that I know about is that the kids are going back to school on Wednesday -"
"Yes, life is magical Bill," he said, coming over all wistful-like. "Sometimes I don’t think that we appreciate the beauty of what’s around us. There is beauty and magic in even the simplest things - a daisy perhaps, or the purpling-pink hue of a sunset."
"This is not sounding at all like you Tom -"
"We don’t stop enough to smell the flowers; to delight in a well-turned in a line of poetry; to savour the sweet honey-drip of a hand-picked strawberry -"
"Especially if it’s been picked by the one you love -"
"Exactly Mr Coles! How very perceptive of you!"
"So how’s it going with you and Susan?"
"Susan? Who said anything about Susan?"
"I did, you idiot. What’s happening? Had another date since your blind-date?"
"Well -"
"That’s fantastic! Got to meet her kid Damian yet?"
"Ummm -"
"Anyway! Fantastic! Good luck to you. Listen I’ve just been doing up this questionnaire for the US publishers of "The Well-Tempered Clavier" - or "Prelude" as they’re now going to call it."
"Oh - good."
"Seems like they’re going to be changing the cover, Tommy Boy!"
"But it’s a brilliant cover!"
"Sorry, old buddy, it’s just gotta go. And you know what? I’ll bet they’re even going to want to see the original manuscript before you started tampering with it and chucking in all your "bitter-sweets" -"
"They couldn’t!"
"Tell you what - I’ll offer it to them and see what they say!"