A.

It is though.

Sorry to be a pain, but now I get this: So Bluesky tells me I have 2 followers, and also that I have none, and I cannot message you. Is that a bug, I wonder?

I have consulted with my impeccably polite English friend and he informed me that your offence was fully justified, so I apologize again.

But it so does not, mate :) "Susanna pressed her hands against the wooden uprights of the car interior as they hurtled around the corners of narrow streets she should have recognised, if only they were moving more slowly."

I stand corrected. I think salvaging it for its own sake would be nice, because, as far as I can tell (and I'm conceited enough to think I can tell quite far) I am not malicious in this instance. And it would be better in private. So do follow me back, please.

"bloody"...? and the first thing i said was "I'm a bloody Hungarian"... no offence intended.

But actually, I do apologize. Getting in touch was frustrating, I vented. I still read my first four messages as being jocular, but perhaps they weren't.

Luckily, the feeling is mutual.

If you are going to consult a reference Hungarian anyway, there's one more thing: I don't think any Trabant ever had any wooden body parts (mentioned in the car chase scene) - but I could be wrong about that, they started before my time. But I'm pretty sure the East Germans were too cheap for that.

As for the admonition, mate :) I took the trouble, checked your site, found the personal little note at the end of the pro bio and thought, what a nice guy... then I had to jump through hoops only to find I cannot actually chat, only comment publicly. Bit of a learning curve there.

Good afternoon. I'm Bruno. The book was recommended by a very old English friend firstly as a good yarn and secondly because he felt the Hungarian detail was so exquisitely correct - I was disappointed but not surprised it wasn't. It never is, our alphabet just too long, our background to foreign.

Ferenc is practically never written with a z at the end if it is a first name (though frequently if it is a family name). Which is all tiny spuds, and the book delivers, but what I'm curious about is: what's wrong with asking a bloody Hungarian?

It's concerning Karla's Choice. I'm a bloody Hungarian. So at the risk of repeating what has already been said, but out of a vague sense of civic duty: Léo is not a Hungarian boy's name, but Leó is. Iren is not a Hungarian girl's name, but Irén is.

So I followed the instructions, registered on Bluesky, confirmed my email, proved to a robot's satisfaction that I am not a robot, only to find that Nick Harkaway cannot be messaged on here. And I did want to chat.