Two organisations have asked me to be a Fellow. But I'm already a fellow, so how come I'm now a Fellow and a Fellow? Well, this is what can happen if an august institution decides that you're on ok bloke and you've been round the houses and back. So now I'm a Fellow of the English Association and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. I had a choice of signing The Book where Fellows of the RSL sign, with either Byron's or Dickens's pen. Having written a little biography of Dickens I thought I ought to choose his, but someone had just quoted a scurrilous couplet from Byron. I was tempted to do the same. When Lord Castlereagh, a much hated minister died, Byron wrote:
'Posterity will ne'er survey
A nobler grave than this.
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh.
Stop, traveller, and p***.'
But I didn't get the chance. O shucks.
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