An alternative approach to direct mail

I've recently come back from my hols (French Riviera - Nice - as you ask). Mostly I read non-fiction because there is just so much to know about the world but when I am on the beach I succumb to my guilty pleasure, which is as sub-genre of science-fiction called alterative history (or 'allohistory' if you're trying to sound intellectual about it) - stories set in Nazi-occupied Britain or America where the South won the Civil War, that kind of stuff.

My AH book this year was called 'Unnatural History' and was set in an England where the Victorian era hadn't ended and the British Empire still ruled the world. The hero was a Moorcock-inspired Jerry Cornelius-style dandy called Ulysses Quicksilver.

I won't go into the plot, which is hardly relevant to this post (and wasn't all that good anyway), but I will refer you to a paragraph on p202 that shows the ubiquity of DM as a fundraising method, even in parallel universes.

'Scattered across the desk were various pieces of the last few days' post. They included a letter from the firm of Mephisto, Fanshaw and Screwtape, an invitation to join the maiden voyage of a new sub-ocean liner, and something from the Cats Protection League asking for Quicksilver's support.'