I Was Giving A Speech One Time,

The Vehemence With Which Certain Critics Have Chosen Not Simply To Criticize What I've Written, But To Challenge My Writing This Story At All, Speaks Of What The Book Is About: Fear Of Disapproval.

It's Not Only Children Who Grow. Parents Do Too.

More Than Any Other Setting - More Than Battlefields Or Boardrooms Or A Spaceship Headed For Intergalactic Travel - I'll Put My Money On The Family To Provide An Endless Source Of Comedy, Tragedy And Intrigue.

Growing Up In The Fifties And Sixties, I Can Only Remember Knowing One Child, Ever, Whose Parents Got A Divorce, And Hardly Any Whose Mother "worked" At Anything Besides Raising Her Children.

Those Who Rhapsodize About The Ease And Joy Of Childhood Have Perhaps Forgotten What It's Like To Be 12 Years Old.