Nell Frizzell’s article on authors looking for their books in bookshops (3 March) reminded me of an occasion over 40 years ago in my bookshop, Bush Books in Shepherd’s Bush. The BBC was based nearby, and many recognisable faces would come through our doors. Patrick Moore, the wonderfully eccentric presenter of The Sky at Night, was a regular. In 1981, he wrote a curious sideline entitled Bureaucrats: How to Annoy Them, published under the pseudonym RT Fishall. A few days after its publication, he came in and enquired about “an unusual book that had come to his attention”. We had an entertaining few minutes pretending not only that we did not know who had actually written the book, but also that we did not know to whom we were talking. It ended in a friendly owning up on both sides.
Michael Cook
London
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