An anonymous contributor has brought me up to date on Nicky Haslam's missing memoir (see below). On December 12, the Mail's Richard Kay reported that the party divo and interior designer had decided to buy back the rights to Redeeming Features - click here for the full story (and then scroll down).
Kay writes, quoting an unnamed source (Haslam himself?): "'Nicky is prepared to repay his advance, which is in five figures, in order to get the manuscript back,'" says a friend. "'Most of the people he's written about are dead so he's decided to bring it up to date by including the past 40 years or so.'"
A Weidenfeld insider describes the book as "brilliant". I hear even that the Mail itself was ready to serialise for stacks of money; so this is all very odd. Why, for instance, doesn't Weidenfeld keep the door open for the updated book instead of saying someone else will have to publish it? It's a story that doesn't make much sense as presented.
3 comments:
he's not delivered, i hear. this saves face all round if you think it through.
Possibly, but a Weidenfeld source called the M/S "brilliant" so something was delivered. I'd like to know why he would change his mind so late, why he's upset with his agent Gillon Aitken (it is rumoured), why he's worried about writing about the dead (the safest type) and why Weidenfeld are no longer interested.
And is there actually a book at all? 'Brilliant' is publisher-speak for 'We liked the synopsis'
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