Recently, we pondered the possibility that one of the fictitious journals (Semtex Syntax) featured in Andrew Masterson's novel Death of the Author might actually be Cordite in disguise.

Well, lo and behold, Masterson has taken the time to assure us that this is not so. Here is his communique in full:

Dear Cordite, You have a blog entry dated September 30, 2002, submitted by DP, in which the writer suggests that a fictional poetry magazine, Semtex Syntax, mentioned in my novel Death of the Author, may be an oblique reference to Cordite. For the record, it is not. I had not heard of Cordite when writing the book, and indeed only came across it during a routine web search. Cheers,

Andrew Masterson

So there.