h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Len,

Just to let you know I have edited Chapter 21 of your book, and the extract will appear on the front page of the site on 24 November. I barely changed a thing, it is so beautifully written and evocative.

As I'm sure you know, to access all your edited stories, click on 'See all stories and questions' (further down this page, under the heading 'My WW2 Stories and Questions') and then choose 'Show edited contributions'.

Best wishes
Deborah

Dear Deborah & Paul, Must be entering my senility (90 in about 4 years). I just couldn't see a sign of my Chapt.21 on your BBC History WW2. What did I do wrong?
Regards Len

Dear Deboral & Paul
Sorry; I must be going blind as well! I've just noticed that your messages indicate that November 24th. was the day my efforts were being given prominence on your front page, not October 24th. as I had mistakenly read. Again, I say sorry.
Len

No worries Len! I found myself putting a dirty nappy in the fridge just the other day, so misreading a date seems to me like a perfectly normal thing to do - and I'm about 60 years younger than you!

Dear Deborah
Many thanks for your reply; I read it out to Betty (my wife of 55 years), and she had a good laugh. It took her back 50 years to our last nappy wearer. Terry towel in those days, of course. (I only read the other day, that those are healthier wear for baby).
Regards Len
ps. I see you added a smiley to your answer. I tried to add one but it was refused. Favouritism!

Dear Deborah & Paul
I wrote yesterday to tell you that under 'Books' on your main site, in 'The Will to Live', the verse at the start of 'A Foreword' has been condensed into continuous prose, and is thus virtually incomprehensible.

I have now discovered that from 'A Foreward', and Chapter 1, to Chapter 20 inclusive, all the paragraph formatting has been omitted; consequently the text is now one long boring piece without a break.

Please do what you can to rectify matters.

Regards Len

Hi Len,

Sorry for the late reply to this. I will ask our technical guys to look into it.

Deborah

Thanks Deborah - all OK now; I wonder how they managed to alter those 20 chapters without realising they'd done it, and putting it right!
Len

It's all something to do with a mysterious thing called templates, which mere mortals like the two of us have little hope of ever understanding! Big websites like this one are complex beasts, and often the very tool that fixes one problem will create another...

Thanks Debbie. Can you please tell me how anyone finding my contribution on your main site, can look up my personal page?
Regards Len
ps. Hope you don't mind being called 'Debbie' - it sounds less formal.

Dear Debbie
I have been unable to contact anyone on my page for several days, as I was not recognised, and told that my password had been wrongly entered three times. I wanted to tell you that Chapter 41 of 'The Will to Live' has disappeared off both my page and the main site.
Regards Len

Chapter 41 now missing from 'The Will to Live' Len

Sorry Debbie. I've just remembered that although there are 41 contributions, the first 'A Foreword' is not numbered, so nothing is missing. Please apologise to Paul for me as well. Just getting too old!
Best wishes Len

Dear Debbie
In checking your BBC WW2 History website to see whether Chapt.21 of 'The Will to Live' was indeed displayed on the front page, (as today was the 24th, of course) I noticed that there were 2 errors in the poem at the start of 'A Foreword'

In verse 2, second line is mixed up with the third;'By wasting time' should be in the third line.

In verse 6, third line is mixed up with the fourth: 'Permits another self to be' should be in the fourth line.

I hope it can be corrected.

Yours Len

Hi Len,

I've fixed that quickly, but since the article doesn't have 'edited' status, it's not locked and you can also still edit it. (At the moment there's no easy way to see which articles are edited and which ones aren't, but we're addressing this problem and the changes should be up on the site shortly.)

Best wishes,
Deborah

Dear Debbie
Thanks so much, you have 'done me proud', and had the mistakes corrected in time for the front page.
Yours Len