Mary Killen Mary Killen

Dear Mary, from Matt Hancock: after an eventful year, how should I get in touch with old friends?

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From Lady Antonia Fraser

Q. I enjoy getting readers’ letters, but there is one category I am at a loss how to deal with. These are from readers who inform me that in another life, another incarnation, they were one of my historical characters, their present lives being generally very different. Most striking was the vicar’s wife who wrote to me after reading my King Charles II: ‘I am now the hard-working wife of a clergyman but in another life I was that naughty minx Nell Gwyn.’ Occasionally there has been aggression: ‘How dare you write about my wife, Mary Queen of Scots?’ signed ‘formerly Lord Darnley’. A great many people seem to have once been Marie Antoinette. Should I answer them as they were — or as they are? For instance, ‘How was the guillotine for you?’ vs ‘Did you enjoy my book?’

A. You might reply that it must be tiresome for them to read inaccurate representations of their own past lives and that it would be sensible for them to commit to paper their own recollections before they find themselves in another incarnation.

From Matt Hancock

Q. Earlier this year I had a change of circumstances and haven’t had the chance to be in touch with some of the people I enjoy spending time with. How should I rectify this problem? Should I send Christmas cards, despite the fact that they seem to be going the way of the horse and trap? Or should I host a Christmas party and run the risk of a last-minute cancellation by Sajid Javid?

A. It is best to send what has become known as a ‘round robin’. Normally viewed as the quintessence of naff, these self-important news-sheets list all the sender’s achievements and setbacks of the previous year in far too much tedious detail.

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