I’ve known Ella for donkeys - in fact she recently found an application I sent to her from 2013 where I wanted to be an intern for her! - and her experience, expertise, vision, and ambition will only make Apple Tree bear greater fruit. I can’t wait to see what the years ahead hold!

Nature telling us something 😂

And then this. It absolutely *sucks*. And it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.

I don’t know whether they were underpaying that book’s royalties back then - I only had mental maths to go off - but it wouldn’t shock me, just as it wouldn’t shock me if it’s being happening to others for ages

Meantime, Unbound were chatting to him. I don’t know the ins and outs, but suddenly he was signing with them for a few more books. I can only assume the whiff of an agent wanting to look at those royalty statements made them jump to it and offer him the world, frankly. 4/

I sucked up the irritation of the last year - he’d done what he thought best, and was talented - and told him he’d been underpaid, based on what facts I had to hand. Other publishers would be interested in working with him, I thought. 3/

He wanted to talk about his options. Book 1 had been pretty successful in the scheme of things. Annoyingly, it was a secondary concept I’d worked up with him, after we’d had some lovely turndowns for another idea, but thems the breaks when it comes to agenting 2/

Yup. And don’t get me wrong, Herne Hill is bloody lovely with seriously expensive and nice houses - but London is culture, surely? And the spaces are for all, including - sometimes - for music

Look at them. A bunch of rich people in their 50s+ who are more concerned by a bit of noise than the pleasure of thousands. I live round the corner from Brockwell Park. Is it a bit of a pain? Yes. But the actual festivals are a few weekends a year. Deal with it.

How do they think Lambeth Council can keep the Country Show free? And awfully convenient that they have no issues with that, either, despite it having the same footprint and being part of the same change of use license. (No shade on the Country Show, which is bloody fab)

As you should be. This morning ought to be a smug-Una morning

💃