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I would have been angry, but I had not the time. That morning, Press agencies grovelled to me in The Bun office for leave to use certain photos, which, they understood, I controlled, of a certain village dance. When I had sent the fifth man away on the edge of tears, my self-respect came back a little. Then there was The Bun’s poster to get out. Art being elimination, I fined it down to two words (one too many, as it proved)—‘The Gubby!’ in red, at which our manager protested; but by five o’clock he told me that I was the Napoleon of Fleet Street. |
This is from “The Village that Voted the Earth was Flat” in A Diversity of Creatures. The narrator, and friends who include an MP and a newspaper proprietor, are charged with speeding, brought before the local Justice of the Peace in a village called Huckley, fined and held up tro public ridicule. Convicted shortly after them is the famous music hall impresario, “Bat” Masquerier. They take revenge by making Huckley and its J.P., also an M.P., a public laughing stock. Here the campaign is gathering momentum. |
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