A long, sometimes tedious, but subtle and interesting piece on the relationship between the real world, of messy, complex adult humans, and the plastic world we try to construct as we wish it to be.

In this case it's a novel writer and a prudish editor. I can relate to this when editors tone down my attacks on unethical tech companies who might be advertisers - generally though I get a free hand because most editors seem sympathetic to the same concerns.

But it could equally be a magazine Photoshopping a model's blemishes, or a company PR department putting a gloss on research work. Anyone who has worked where an intermediary interprets ones work to an audience has experienced this doctoring at some point.

The role of the sanitiser, filter, censor and arbiter of taste is ever present. We seem to live in age of form over substance, appearance above reality, and wishing into existence a world that won't offend imaginary others.