Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Nicky Haslam - where's his book?
Where is Nicky Haslam's Redeeming Features: A Memoir? It was due out last month, then publication was postponed to January 3. Now it is noted that the book has disappeared from Orion's website completely - though I see in passing that on Jan 3 Jasper Rees' I Found My Horn is out, which would make a most suitable Haslam title, I feel. Would someone report back to me on when this book is out. Please.
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15 comments:
as per richard kay's mail diary, he's bought back the rights. keep up.
Thank you for this, I did miss it and I must try to keep up.
Rejoice ! The bookshops freed of another pseudo-celebrity wank fest.
I was looking forward to the goss. Perhaps Haslam feared another Answered Prayers situation (social ostracism)? I understand Haslam is cross with his agent Gillon Aitken - if true, I wonder why? Could someone explain please - Nicky, are you out there? Fish? Where are you? You know I'll find out, so tell me anyway.
Afraid I only know the same as everyone else on this. I don't ask him about the book really, seems a stress. F x
Doesn't it sound suspiciously like it doesn't contain anything in the way of worthwhile 'goss' and W&N just can't be arsed to chuck a few thousand copies into the remainder shops.
Fish, poppet - please get in touch with Nicky and tell him to email me, I must know what's going on. I have people here weeping and wailing, they were soooooooooooooooooooooo excited at the prospect of reading his book, and now they are as weepy as an X Factor finalist's grandma reading an autocue monologue about how miserable life is and how Simon Cowell and his lovely show could change everything boo-hoo. Only Chanel No 5 and Nicky do it for me. Tell him.
Well, the case is quite clear to me : Mr. Haslam wishes to buy out his contract because he's got a better offer from another publisher if his memoirs would include more recent stories about living people – which for some reason is probably not allowed by his contract with his current publisher. Nothing to do with "Answered Prayers" scruples or fears... on the contrary !
I'm astonished at how often your twisted mind draws you away from the simple, obvious answers to the questions you ask yourself.
In my (always humble) opinion, naturally. :-)
Duralex, this is highly speculative and typically Mary-quite-contrary of you, if I may so.
There is no suggestion that Haslam desired to buy out his contract with Weidenfeld because of a better offer elsewhere: this is not even implied in the Mail report. Nor does it make much sense. He was advanced a good five-figure sum and the Mail was interested in serialisation. I think it most improbable that at so late a stage he would disrupt such lucrative deals unless there was some other reason yet to be revealed or teased out.
Why not stick to the two-book deal: one to do with the distant past and one to do with the more recent past? That was what he had agreed to, and the money omens were good. It is almost unheard of in Britain for a writer to jump publishing ship - particularly around the time of publication - for another.
A final thought - though Weidenfeld say they expected a bestseller, and the Mail was interested, I do not believe for one moment that Haslam could produce a book that would sell in the hundreds of thousands: his prose style, for instance, is rarefied though clever and witty, too. And for every Mick Jagger he knows there are a hundred aristocratic nonentities of his acquaintance to exhaust the patience of your average reader.
Nicky's true commercial worth lies in the extent to which he spills the beans on glitzy names. There's more to this story - Fish, go get it now!!
<< Duralex, this is highly speculative and typically Mary-quite-contrary of you >>
At least I'm playing my part on the bandwagon. ;-)
<< Nicky's true commercial worth lies in the extent to which he spills the beans on glitzy names. >>
And maybe Weidenfeld is not ready to take that risk, but another publisher is, just what I was suggesting. And maybe the ageing Mr. Haslam needs money for his old days. Go figure !
I make no promises.
Can Haslam write? I read something in ES the other week and couldn't get passed the first paragraph. I got the impression he lays words out for artistic effect, then re-arranges them on a whim.
I've trawled my memory for everything that I know about Mr Haslam and I think this is it: Old Etonian, good with fabrics, dresses at Topman, goes to parties full of rich fuckers, likes polyester carpet. Now, why would anyone need to know more than that.
I first tried to order this book in December 2006 then publication was pulled .
I would think that most of your surmises as to why it's still not been published don't ring true.
It has to be from a libellous point of view that it's not been published.
Bloody lawyers.
Boo.
Likewise, Mrs Woo, I tried to order the book. He also had a book called "The Way You Looked That Night" which online said it had been published but actually hadn't (Waterstone's and WHSmith still haven't forgiven me for sending them on a wild goose chase for it).
He has either just finished or is just finishing up the book, which was originally going to be two volumes - one from his early life to the sixties, then the second one would deal from then up to the present day. Now it is just the one book and he has been working very hard on it in the past few months.
I do not think that the pushing back of the publish date has anything to do with libellous claims etc from Haslam - he had a few falling outs with his original publisher... one would think if they wanted his book they'd have been a bit nicer about it.
Redeeming Features is set to be out on 2009s Christmas list, so keep your ears open and your eyes peeled. I have no doubt I will give Madame the heads up when I know a specific date.
Am hoping he does a few tv appearances - would be good for him to be a bit better known for everything he's been a part of in the last fifty years.
Regards,
Fish x
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