Napoleon and Juliet...

Dear Juliet

Back and battered, though I haven't met my Waterloo...

Thought I'd explain something I might have explained before.

I'm not bothered about this talent agency. I'm not begging for their interest or desperate for their attention. It took twenty-two years to get my self-respect back after D. C. Thomson, and as soon as I got these words on the inside page of Dear Miss Landau:

The moral right of James Christie to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.

...it was like this scene from the battle of Waterloo in the TV series Sharpe, when Sharpe finally sees Napoleon and Mr Harper says, "that's all I came for, so it is."

And so it was. Everything else was indeed the most glorious icing on the cake, but if it had all stopped after that publication day I always said I'd have had no reason to complain.

Wouldn't have wanted to lose you, though.

So I won't slip your name into the email on the quiet, and we'll see if they can be bothered to look up the history, the reviews and the words anyway.

If not, I am content to quote The Sword of Rhiannon and dream "the dreams of age which are so close to reality, remembering the sound of trumpets and the laughter and the strength."

I was not a Napoleon, merely a pilgrim on the mountain road to Calvary in search of redemption, but you were my Josephine.

Love,

James