Letter: Royle couple

Sir: Our advice to Nick Baker ("Nicking a little kudos", 12 April), who is frustrated by the emergence of a namesake working in a similar field, is not to flee and yield your name and your identity, but to double up and make friends.

We came across each other several years ago when a magazine to which we had independently submitted short stories sent them all back to one of us. Between us we have published 20 books, but neither bookshops nor libraries distinguish between us. For all they know, the author of After Derrida is the same man who wrote The Matter of the Heart. The author of Counterparts and Telepathy and Literature was recently invited to address a conference in Finland: there is no such author.

As long as neither of us produces anything execrable, there's no problem. We've started doing readings together and a collaborative volume is in the pipeline.

NICHOLAS ROYLE

London W12

NICHOLAS ROYLE

Stirling, Central Scotland