Dear Mr. Stroud,
Now as I'm sure you've heard from everybody who's asked you questions, I would just like to say that you are the paragon* of good writing!

Anyways,
It's been partially asked before, but I would like to know more about the very first summoning of a spirit. You said that it would be a shock like childbirth, but I would like to know, what was Bartimaeus's first summoning like?

If you don't want to answer this now, you could always use it as the start of another book...(PLEEEEASE?) :(

Thank you for your time!

--Nevermore

________________________________________________________________
*Or epitome. I really like those words because they're so interchangeable! ;)

Dear Nevermore,

Thanks for your message! Epitome and paragon: two great words, used skilfully, and with a footnote too! Bart would be impressed, even envious...

Well, that's an excellent question, and as you rightly guessed, not one that I can really answer here. It may be that Bart would want to discuss it in a future book one day, and I don't want to pre-empt that. But it's true that the initial summoning (and all subsequent ones, to a degree) are like childbirth - both in the pain and shock, and also (with the first one) in that it ends with a naming. To a certain extent Bart and the other djinn don't truly exist - in isolation, and with their defined personalities - until that first summoning. So there are all kinds of philosophical questions here about whether or not it would have been better never to have been 'born' in this manner. Bart would doubtless prefer never to have been summoned, but then we'd never have a story, and he'd have no fame or adventures, so it's tricky to resolve...

Bye for now,

Jonathan