Michael Henderson suggests

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Dear Mary

Mary Killen

Wednesday, 30th April 2008

Your problems solved

A. No, but as Max Beerbohm observed — every author is dissatisfied with their publisher because every author thinks, ‘this book will make my fortune and make the world think more highly of me,’ and, of course, their dream does not come true. At least if you stay with Bloomsbury, you have the perfect excuse for your lack of success — ‘all the attention has been diverted to J.K. Rowling’ you can say. What is more, you can be glad that, thanks to J.K. Rowling, your advance from Bloomsbury will have been roughly double what it would have been without her being part of your stable.

Q. Further to the solution offered about how to cope with unwelcome singing in a communal shower at the pool (29 March) — I believe the strategy you suggest is exactly how antisocial behaviour is communicated to the offender in the longhouses of Borneo, where people live in divided cubicles with thin enough walls so everyone can hear each other chatting. So one person will say, in a very loud voice, ‘Isn’t it terrible how some people take more than their share of rambutan at breakfast time?’ Everyone else agrees and makes disapproving noises. The culprit, shamed but unconfronted, then sins no more.

A.F., Marrickville, Australia

A. Thank you for endorsing my advice.