The Times Diary: Too deaf to be easily offended
Behind the scenes at a literary festival is a dangerous place. The novelist Alexander McCall Smith told the Hay Festival that he would drop his guard while backstage and this once damaged the career of the historian William Dalrymple. “How old are your readers?” Dalrymple asked. McCall Smith, pictured, said he had some who were young and some who were less so. “Well,” said Dalrymple, “my readers are really ancient.” At this point, they realised their mikes were on and the audience could hear this indelicate chat. “It doesn’t matter,” McCall Smith told a mortified Dalrymple. ...
Source: thetimes.co.uk
