A Curious Thought

C Holden (c.holden@ECCI.CO.UK)
Tue, 20 Jan 1998 14:08:48 GMT 

     Dear Sir

     A curious thought came into my head this lunch time.  I was standing
     in a queue in a booksellers clutching in one hand a magazine and in
     the other, a ten pond note and on that note I saw, of course, your
     image.  What greater honour can there be bestowed upon a person than
     that.   Your life was truly a 'rags to riches' story and as you
     matured and became one of the greatest of all writers, you must have
     become accustomed to seeing your name and image in print, but to have
     your image there  alongside the monarch on the currency of the land?
     How does that feel?

     I would like to take this one step further and ask you to stir the
     genius that is your imagination and put yourself back as that
     bewildered , disenfranchised little boy, full of despair in that
     Blacking Factory. How would that little,boy have felt if an enigmatic
     and mysterious figure (like Ali Baba) had appeared to him holding one
     of these notes and said: "Take courage little fellow.  Things will not
     always be like this for you.  This is your destiny..."

     Yours respectfully

     Chris Holden