This letter carries the name of the Senior Editor of Word of God Books (incorporating Jamnia Press Ltd, T&T Muratori and Oxbridge University Press) to contributors of The Bible. We are unsure whether this letter was actually sent, or the exact date of writing (some of the instructions in the letter seem not to have been carried out). The present draft is apparently a verbal transcription of a dictated text, as indicated by the appended note from the secretary, who has scribbled ‘He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.’

Dear All,

I am writing to update you on the progress of The Bible, our flagship project. Many thanks to those of you who have already submitted the first drafts of their contracted chapters. May I remind the remainder that deadlines are pressing, and that, due to the joint pressures of market and mortality, we are absolutely unable to accommodate some of the requests for extended revision periods. (Some manuscripts were originally commissioned in the Iron Age and have still not been completed centuries later, and it is now time for closure [Note to Daphne: Please underline this sentence on the copy that goes to Isaiah]).

Could we also direct you to that part of the contract that says that ‘I represent that the chapter was written entirely by me, that publication of my chapter will not violate or infringe on the rights of any other individual or company’.