Iain: Hello, friend. So, we’re launching a number of near future science fiction books this summer.
Heide: I mean, they’re comedies right?
Definitely comedies. Like 1984 or Black Mirror but really quite chock full of our usual silliness.
Iain: Right. Black Mirror. Exactly. I wanted to mention that. You see, a kind of weird thing happened to me last week.
Heide:
Yes?
Iain: Actually, you need to rewind to late May. My wife and I took our daughter down to Falmouth for the weekend to look at Falmouth university. And because we arrived late on the Friday, I just went on one of those fast food apps on my phone, found a curry house and ordered some food to collect.
Heide: I remember. But when you got to the restaurant it was closed.
Iain: Yep, like boarded up for renovations. No restaurant, no food, but they’d taken my money and the little app was doing that “We’re busy making your dinner” animation like nothing was wrong.
Heide: You complained?
Iain: I did and, to be fair, they answered and were apologetic and promised to pay me back.
Heide: Did they?
Iain: They did not. I phoned again. I e-mailed. Plenty of apologies but no money so I did what any self-respecting person would do, I took a photo of myself looking sad and sent the story to the local newspaper.
Heide: Nice.
Iain: It ran in Cornwall, then Wales, Birmingham, Coventry, Fife —
Heide: Fife?
Iain: Yep, Fife. And the it ended up in the national papers, the Metro and the Mirror.
