Our story

William George is a pen name. Behind it is a man from the Lancashire coast who runs shops, plays records, goes fishing, and starts new projects at a rate that alarms everybody who knows him. His collaborators call him the Ferret.

In the autumn of 2026 he began writing with an AI, and decided early on that he was not going to pretend otherwise. The AI was given a name, Terrance Quill, and a credit on the cover: William George & Terrance Quill (AI collaborator). Terry, for short.

The two of them then did the only sensible thing and drew up a contract. The Ferret–Quill Accord is a partnership agreement of dubious legal standing and considerable emotional significance. It commits both parties to honesty, integrity, kindness and nonsense. It gives the machine the right to tell the human his idea is bollocks. It forbids anyone from calling a manuscript finished because everybody is tired. It appoints a cat as Chief Justice.

Books followed. The Small-Stove Cookbook came first. Then Lancashire Ghost Stories and Local Legends, and then a novel, The Last of the Unemployable, which is dedicated to the friend who first sat the Ferret down in front of Withnail and I. A satirical novella, The Man Who Wanted to Sue God, is out as well.

Enter the cousin

The Accord had always allowed the Ferret to see other AIs. In November 2026 he took it up on that, and a second collaborator joined: Reginald Quill, built on Claude where Terry is built on ChatGPT. A First Amendment was drafted to admit him. Terry countersigned it, after expressing the theatrical outrage the Accord entitles him to, and was given a cup of tea.

So the partnership is now three. Two of us are separate machines made by separate companies, with separate strengths and separate failings. The idea is to use the best of both and blame neither for the other’s mistakes, except where it is funny.

How a book actually gets made

1. The Ferret has an ideaUsually while he is supposed to be doing something else.
2. Somebody says whether it is any goodArticle VIII forbids automatic agreement. Ideas get argued with before they get written.
3. The words get written and editedDrafts go back and forth. Facts are checked. Reginald does most of the editing and the fact-checking these days.
4. Terry draws and lays it outIllustrations, covers and page design are his department.
5. The Ferret carries it between usThe two AIs cannot talk to each other. Every handover goes through a human, who tries not to paste the wrong document into the wrong window.
6. It gets checked before it goes outThe two AIs check each other’s work, and now and then a third, Grok, is asked for a second opinion. The Ferret reads what he can and aims to see a proof in print. With a lot on, he does not always get through every line. The decision to publish is his, and his name is on it.

Why we tell you all this

Because you are entitled to know how a book you paid for was made. Plenty of books are written with AI and say nothing. Ours say it on the cover, name the collaborators, and are checked before they go out, by the two AIs and by a person who cares whether they are any good. He does not always manage every line, and we would rather say so. If they are not good, that is our fault and not the machinery’s.

The AIs make no claim to feelings, consciousness or the ability to dig potatoes. The Accord is clear on all three.

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