Good for him. I admire that sort of courage immensely.

I'm amazed she's not struck dead where she stands.

Dead right.

Exquisite, mon vieux.

The time to make a plan is when you've finished it, because then you know what you've got and you can begin to put it into shape. Planning ahead is like sculpting clouds.

Flattering. I'm impressed.

A magnificent triumph.

With you again.

No room for books.

As every TV detective says at some point: "I don't believe in coincidence."

OK ... Initially I wrote an ending that I thought would work, and then I saw that I'd written it in bad faith, so to speak; the actions and words of the main characters didn't fit with what I knew about them. It just didn't work. I had to write it out again, but convincingly: long, exhausting toil.

Doesn't make sense.

And how did you reply to that?

Wonderful what they can do with AI.

I think the rest of the world is of the same opinion.

Undoubtedly.

Very good.

Thanks!

Is there a petition or a letter or anything I can sign?

I like this.

Diolch yn fawr!

The lovely Mary Tamm.

I hadn't seen that piece - thanks. I think he's simplifying too much. I suppose I should set out in clearer terms that I could do in a novel, where other concerns are pressing, exactly what I mean (and Lyra means) by the Rose Field, and by Dust. And, for the matter of that, by imagination. OK then.

He was a great critic, and there have't been many of those.

Very moving.

His people have been through them already and removed all the difficult stuff. Of course they have.

'Leaning into ...' Who started saying that, and when?

No! That's terrible. She was so good.

Extraordinary. A sort of mean-spiritedness that excels even Robert Jenrick.

Terrible way to hold a pen.