Alex Ferguson's errors join a grand publishing tradition

He hates making mistakes, but he's made an awful lot in his memoir. Luckily it's a venerable customIs there a special bad elf that creeps out in the pre-Christmas period to wreak havoc with would-be bestsellers? Novelist Helen Fielding and actor David Jason might be forgiven for thinking so, after 40 of pages of his memoir turned up in her novel.Now it's Alex Ferguson's turn to face the wrath of fans, after his autobiography was found to contain 45 howling errors. The title of one of the season's competing memoirs says it all: John Bishop's How Did All This Happen?In the case of the Bridget/Del Boy mash-up, a simple printer's error could be blamed. The Ferguson fiasco is less easily brushed away, given the publisher's insistence that the ghost-written book was read by a specialist football fact-checker as well as in-house staff. Perhaps it's down to the sheer volume of volumes that have been churned out with a view to that coveted top Christmas slot, or maybe it's to do with changing priorities in publishing as a whole.Be that as it may, complaints about editing standards are nothing new. But let's look on the bright side. Could these flawed books turn out to be investments for the future, as some other objects have become? A copy of the Beatles' single "Love Me Do", by that arty duo "Lennon-McArtney" sold for $19,000 last year – though its value was undoubtedly ratcheted up by fact that the spelling error identified it as part of a very limited batch of promotional... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]

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Times editor and former PCC member join Ipso's appointment panel

Newspaper publishers have announced the latest stage in their creation of their new regulator, the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso).The former judge who chairs the "foundation group", Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, and the former civil servant, Sir Hayden Phillips, who was... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2014-01-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Alex Ferguson's errors join a grand publishing tradition

He hates making mistakes, but he's made an awful lot in his memoir. Luckily it's a venerable customIs there a special bad elf that creeps out in the pre-Christmas period to wreak havoc with would-be bestsellers? Novelist Helen Fielding and actor David Jason might be forgiven for thinking so,... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2013-11-19 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Brent libraries judicial review: day two

Written By: Benedicte Page Publication Date: Thu, 21/07/2011 - 09:18 Brent council's plan to close six of its 12 libraries was made "with great care and expressed attention to the 1964 Act" and other relevant legislation, the High Court heard yesterday (20th July). The council had faced... Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2011-07-21 00:00:00 UTC ]
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