Q. I am living as a lodger in the flat
of a novelist in Notting Hill. Everything about the arrangement is perfect — the location, the accommodation, our daily walks in the garden square with the dog, good conversation over breakfast and often supper — but every time I walk into a room where she is, she leaps back and whoops in surprise, as if I were an armed burglar. It is normal that it should take her a while to get used to sharing her flat with someone else, but it has now been three months. How can I reduce her stress levels?
M.B, London W11 A. Goatherds in the mountainous areas of Majorca furnish their charges with tinklingbelled collars so they can determine the whereabouts of their herd. Why not customise a more loudly pealing belled collar for yourself and don it each time you cross the threshold of the flat? In this way the novelist will have good warning of your approach and time to prepare a more moderate response to your full materialisation.
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