THE phone call to the St Magnus Cathedral manse about five years or so ago was intriguing.
The caller introduced himself as Les Cowan; he explained that he had written the manuscript of a book and he wondered if I could give him some advice. Such requests usually trigger a warning light in the brain: after all, things can get rather tricky if, in all honesty, you don’t rate the proffered manuscript very highly. How do you break the news without causing offence or inducing despair? One thing I was sure about was that offering false hope would not actually help any writer.