NOVELTINA LITERARY AND CRITICAL AGENCY

Mudlark Cottage, The Harbour, Shrimphaven

Dear Glenda Strudwick,

How nice to hear from you that everything is going so well, and that Neville made a good recovery from that nasty chill and the tummy bug, which, as you say, were probably entirely due to his unfortunate dip in the harbour and served him right.

No, it doesn’t really surprise me that he took a sudden aversion to the study, once he saw the framed photograph of Sergei and the new Laura Ashley wallpaper and curtains, but it does indeed now sound the perfect place to construct those delightful dried flower arrangements you make for the church bazaars and the Women’s Institute; and yes, there probably is a good local market for greeting cards and bookmarks made from hand-pressed flowers, and you should certainly try it.

I’m sorry Neville is now underfoot in the rest of the house, although I expect you are enjoying his attempts to ingratiate himself back into your good graces, but actually I meant it when I told him he could write Westerns, so how about buying him a nice shed to work in out of the way and encouraging him to get on with it? Some of them are like little offices, and if you have it well away from the house you will hardly know he is there.

With many thanks for the super wicker cornucopia of dried summer flowers – I am sure it will be a great inspiration to me while I am working.

Best wishes,

Tina Devino

This literary life was terribly exhausting! I’d been on three radio programmes (though they were all recorded at the same place!) and one morning TV thing, which was terrifying, and I was sure I’d made a complete fool of myself, but actually when I watched the video Linny had recorded for me, I wasn’t too bad! I couldn’t remember a thing about it, due to terror, but obviously under severe stress a part of my brain I didn’t even realize I had took over, and so I sounded almost intelligent, which proves I have even more hidden talents than I thought.

Despite all this media coverage I managed to fit in a signing session at Necromancer’s Nook in Shrimphaven, since they’d always been very good to me. Even if I was getting quite successful there was no way I was going to get too big for my boots, because after all it’s still only me in here, when you come right down to it. Actually, lots of people came, including Ramona, and Linny – and Nathan, which was a surprise, although of course I let him know my publicity itinerary.