Rejecting Jane article chronicles the fact that all but one of the publishers and agents failed to recognise her works, including Penguin Books and J. K. Rowling's publisher Bloomsbury, with the vast majority rejecting out of hand this apparent attempt by one of the world’s greatest known authors to gain a publishing deal. This despite the fact that one of the most famous opening lines in English literature, "Pride and Prejudice"’s "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife" was left intact. On its publication the article
A Good Man in Africa (novel) the collection was actually written before the novel, though Boyd claimed he had written both when he sent the collection to potential publishers. Hamish Hamilton agreed to publish the novel (as yet unwritten) and collection in that order, Boyd admits "So I said to my new editor, Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson, 'Look, the manuscript is in a shocking state, I just need a couple of months to knock into shape’, and I sat down and wrote "A Good Man in Africa" in a white heat of dynamic endeavour in three months at my kitchen table. William Boyd grew up in Western Africa,