Dear Bernard, I wonder would you mind answering a ‘technical’ question: How many words are there in your average novel? Does it differ substantially between novels, depending on the story, or is there a rough target that you aim for each time? They say an average novel has 100,000 words, but it seems to me that most novels are longer than that. Sorry, this is not a terribly exciting question, but I am genuinely curious. Thanks. Paul Reid, Ireland.