It's no longer accurate to say that the forces of Anything Goes are sweeping through American culture (if indeed they ever were). Instead, the picture is far more complex and confusing. . . . We have these high-toned sex journals in the finest bookstores, but old-fashioned Harold Robbins-style bonkbusters are declasse.

Have just written '196 Cranford Gardens' when phone rings. it is publisher asking for photograph to put in catalogue. Also enquiries about progress of blockbuster. Or as spouse now refers to it, bonk-buster. Am all too aware that wealthy heroine Charlotte Beaminster has been stuck in her jacuzzi for days because I am unable to imagine what awaits her beyond the bathroom door, but deliver glib communique about progress which publisher swallows.