Publisher Delays Book About Salman Rushdie Over Lawsuit Threat August 6, 2008
The publisher has delayed production on a former policeman's memoirs after the threat
of a lawsuit by Sir Salman Rushdie. The book was written by one of Rushdie's bodyguards who watched over him when he first came to England under threat of death from Iran for publishing The Satanic Verses. Rushdie said the book was full of lies and threatened to sue.
The publisher of a book that Salman Rushdie says portrays him as "mean and arrogant" has delayed publication for a week following Rushdie's threat of legal action. On Her Majesty's Service by Ron Evans was due to be published yesterday, but John Blake Publishing has moved this to August 11 in the hope that once Rushdie has read the book in its entirety he will see it as a "light-hearted and affectionate" portrait.
Rushdie's lawyers contacted John Blake earlier this week over excerpts in the weekend papers from the former Special Branch officer's memoir. These claimed that the security guards protecting Rushdie during the fatwa against him "got so fed up with his attitude that they locked him in a cupboard under the stairs and all went to the local pub for a pint or two". Evans also claimed that the guards nicknamed Rushdie Scruffy, which Rushdie said was untrue.
Managing director John Blake said he was confident that once Rushdie had read the whole book he would realise it was no threat to security. He added: "If anyone should be defending freedom of speech it should be him ... I can't believe that he'd really want to ban a book because it says that detectives named him Scruffy -- in a way that's almost affectionate."
Somehow we don't think Sir Salman is going to change his mind and allow the book to go forward. After all, the book claims he was so obnoxious that his bodyguards locked him in a closet and went out to the nearest pub. It also claims that he's really cheap and charge the police for wine they drank, which is just bizarre. What kind of bodyguard drinks wine on the job?
