Q. I have edited a selection of letters which is to be published later this summer. It is more than likely that, as part of the promotion process, I shall be asked to sign a copy here and there. However, it is not really my book, but that of the distinguished and, alas, departed correspondent. What is the protocol, Mary?
Name and address withheld
A. There is no need for you to feel so modest. You have had all the work of deciphering the letters, putting them into context, writing the footnotes. The book is your creation in that you are its midwife. It would be correct for you to sign it even if the person writing the letters was still alive — in which case you might jointly sign it. Imagine if Charlotte Mosley refused to sign the collection of Mitford letters she compiled. It would be pedantry of the first order. Wield your pen with pride. Readers just want a bit of added value — not in a commercial sense, but in the sense that a copy with your signature will give an extra ‘personalised’ dimension to their ownership of the book.
Q. When making boring administrative
telephone calls in non-private situations one is often asked for a couple of letters from a password. That is fine because the people overhearing one cannot know the rest of the password. What I do mind is being asked to give my full date of birth in a non-private situation. It is not the breach of security I am worried about but the breach of vanity. I don’t want people I work with to know this embarrassing fact. How can one get around this, Mary?
Name and address withheld
A. Let’s say you were born on 9 January 1947. Simply act daft and drone out the year of your birth first, e.g. ‘Four Seven’. Pause and wait for the prompt from the operative for the month and day. You can then drone out ‘oh-nine-oh-one’. It will sound to eavesdroppers as if you are just supplying more code or reference numbers.
Q. I recently gave a party which went very well and I have received a number of charming and delightful letters of thanks. Tell me, Mary: should I thank people for their thanks? Where does it stop?
Name and address withheld
A. By all means express your delight verbally when you next run into the authors. There is absolutely no need for you to counter these effusions in writing.
Q. I inherited a personalised number plate acquired 40 years ago for a few pounds which is now on a small car which I keep in London. It has been a source of much amusement. It would be as ridiculous to remove it to avoid the strictures you attach to owners of personalised number plates
(15 March) as selling a stately home because pop stars also now own them.
P., Zimbabwe
A. Thank you for your comment but the context is different. For a Peer of the Realm to have a personalised number plate in 1960-something is quite different to his having one today. In those days it would have been emblematic of non-pomposity. Today it would suggest the opposite: that you are pleased with yourself and clearly a non-hereditary. In your own case you are quite right not to remove the number plate. Its vintage makes it still perfectly acceptable.
Comments