He captivated readers around the world with Captain Corelli's Mandolin, his tale of a doomed love affair set in wartime Greece. But it seems that best-selling author Louis de Bernieres no longer melts hearts north of the England-Scotland border. For I can disclose that he has just been unceremoniously sacked as Patron of the British Banjo Mandolin and Guitar Federation because of, he believes, his views about how to resolve the question of Scottish independence. 'I have actually been 'cancelled',' he says. 'I had a letter published in the Times about how the rest of the UK ought to have a say in whether we wanted independence from the Scots.