My week in Sodom
Just back from a week on Offa’s Dyke in Wales. Fantastic views. No screaming publisher. No screaming children, come to that. All in all, an excellent time.
"So how did it go, Mr Coles?" asked Idle Tom the Publisher.
"A great walk!" I said. "You wouldn’t believe it, but I’ve been to Sodom!"
"Sodom? As in the Biblical Sodom? Not possible!"
"I promise you!" I said.
"The Sodom that was destroyed in fire and brimstone??"
"Yes that Sodom - twinned with Gomorrah. I even have the pictures to prove it!"
.
[Me with fellow Sodom walker, Richard Sweet … Intimate, but not overly so.]
"Anyway!" said Idle Tom. "Listen! Great news! Just got the hardback big-print version of The Well-Tempered Clavier through. You’re going to love it!"
"New cover?"
"Yep! Bit pinky for my tastes. but yes, new cover."
"None of the grotesque leg-cocking picture?"
"All gone! New picture too -"
"Say! That’s great! What about the blurb on the back?"
"That’s all been redone too. They’ve even got rid of my favourite word ‘bitter-sweet’."
"Better and better!"
"Except -"
"Why, Tom, is there always an ‘except’ with you? What have you done now?"
"Well, it’s not very much, and in the grand scheme of things it’s absolutely nothing at all. But you remember that cover quote from Tunku at the Wall Street Journal?"
"Of course I remember the cover quote from Tunku Varadarajan of the WSJ - "
"Well they’ve got it splashed all over the cover -"
"That’s what I like to hear."
"But they appear to have missed off the last syllable of Tunku’s surname."
"Appear? What on earth do you mean they appear to have left off the last syllable of his surname?"
"Ummm. They’ve called him Tunku Varadara."