A freelance journalist's lament: 'Worse off than a Victorian child shoved up a chimney'

From Seasonal Suicide Notes by Roger Lewis: "For the eight years I have been contributing to a national tabloid I have been kept on the same modest fee, so I am receiving less in real terms, and the freelance is right at the end of the queue, worse off than a Victorian child shoved up a chimney.
"A rumour reached me that as a reward for my loyalty and diligence, the humble fee was to be cut by twenty-five per cent. I wrote in a panic to the editor, saying that a "rumour had reached me that some pusillanimous middle-management fucking arse-creep is intent on cutting my already laughable fee by twenty-five per cent..."
And of course the editor wrote back saying, "that pusillanimous middle-management fucking arse-creep cutting your already laughable fee was me."

Seasonal Suicide Notes is published by Short Books