James Long isn't sure he likes being Will Davenport as well. But it's the throwaway line about the clause in his contract that sends shivers down the Babu's spine: is this really how corporatised publishing has become? "Story-telling, which for me is the entire purpose of writing, has been carved up into genres imposed as arbitrarily as the internal frontiers of the former Yugoslavia. It is very difficult to be a Kingsley Amis these days and wander at will into comedy, crime or sci-fi. One of my contracts actually contains a claustrophobic clause saying the contents of my next book must appeal to the same readers as my last."