Transcription:

Dear Captain Rollo,

Replying at last to your letter of the 4/10/76 1 have pleasure in enclosing a copy of the MS of my book Monsieur Joseph and hope that it will meet with your approval.

Publishing it still seems as far off as ever and it is always the same old story – there is virtually no violence, sex, or ‘lurve’ in the text, and these, it appears, are essential to any book that a publisher can get a return on these days.