Thanks for nothing, Rishi
SIR: I have just celebrated my 80th birthday and been much acclaimed by my family and friends. Even the government has got in on the act, as it has increased my state pension by 25p a week. Unfortunately, my village shop has hardly anything to offer at that price, so I need help from Oldie-readers – how would they spend such unexpected largesse?
Dr Patrick Hoyte, Wootton Courtenay, Minehead, Somerset
Cheers, Martin Amis!
SIR: I was an editor at Jonathan Cape when Martin Amis’s first novel, The Rachel Papers, was published in 1973 (Dan Franklin, Oldie Review of Books, Summer 2023). Some of the ladies of Jonathan Cape had rather taken against the book and its author, finding it sexist and very possibly being published only because he had a famous dad.
The grumbling reached the lad’s ears somehow, and understandably he found it rather unsettling. I was
