Excerpts from Clifton Chronicles

When Harry walked into the offices of the Viking Press, a young woman he recognized was waiting in reception.

'Good morning, Mr Clifton,' said Harold Guinzburg's secretary, stepping forward to greet him. He couldn't help wondering how many authors received this sort of treatment. 'Mr Guinzburg is looking forward to seeing you.'

'Thank you, Kirsty,' said Harry. She led him through to the publisher's oak-panelled office, adorned with photographs of past and present authors: Hemingway, Shaw, Fitzgerald and Faulkner. He wondered if you had to die before your picture could be added to the Guinzburg collection.

Despite being nearly seventy, Guinzburg leapt up from behind his desk the moment Harry entered the room. Harry had to smile. Dressed in a three-piece suit and wearing a halfhunter pocket watch with a gold chain, Guinzburg looked more English than the English.

'So how's my favourite author?'

Harry laughed as they shook hands. 'And how many times a week do you greet authors with those words?' he asked as he sank down in the high, buttoned-back leather chair facing his publisher.

'A week?' said Guinzburg. 'At least three times a day, sometimes more – especially when I can't remember their names.' Harry smiled. 'However, I can prove it's true in your case, because after reading William Warwick and the Defrocked Vicar, I've decided the first print run will be eighty thousand copies.'

Harry opened his mouth, but didn't speak. His last William Warwick novel had sold 72,000 copies so he was well aware of the commitment his publisher was making.

'Let's hope there won't be too many returns.'

'The advance orders rather suggest that eighty thousand won't be enough. But forgive me,' Guinzburg said, 'first tell me, how is Emma? And was the maiden voyage a triumph?

( See interview: Delving deep into the mind of a story teller)