Warlord of the Air - cuts

[GreatOldOne]

Mike, I wondered if you could tell us something about the cuts that were made to the original releases of "Warlord of the Air".
I noticed that "Howell" became "Powell" (presumably Enoch) in the Orion reprints and assume that you were forced to change that at one time.
However, the character of "Egan" has become "Reagan" and I wouldn't have thought Ronnie was in your sights back in '72! Who was that meant to be originally - Anthony Eden?
Why were the changes imposed in the first place? Were you considered that inflammatory at the time?

[Michael Moorcock]

New English Library's over-cautious lawyers made me change those. Reagan was definitely in my sights (as he was in Ballard's, Sladek's and a few others -- remember Ronald Reagan: A Magazine of Poetry ?) since, just as Bush could be detected at work when Governor of Texas, in which he almost bankrupted the State, Reagan similarly almost bankrupted California. Those economic policies supposed to be the panacea for our economic ills are almost always crap. And that sort of mind-set only redoubles its efforts when failure becomes obvious. Unimaginative idiots only have one idea, usually a very bad one.