Anyone wishing to heap either congratulations or opprobrium on the head of Ted Nield, who has taken the small step from composing Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals press releases to outright fiction with his novel Dead Clever, serialised from this week in The THES, will have to wait. The estimable Dr Nield is on holiday in Bali. And no, he isn't in hiding and The THES didn't pay for him to go there (not directly anyway).