NOVELIST Ben Okri tells us he is “really furious” about a false claim from a ghostwriting agency that they had written parts of his Booker prize-winning novel The Famished Road.
“It took years and years to get that book written,” he said, adding: “I had to work my way through a lot of experience that I wanted to shape just right.”
Okri’s work was featured on website USGhostwriting.com, where it was claimed another author had written The Famished Road. Other claims were made about Richard Osman and Hillary Clinton. “My main concern after the anger was to warn people about this scam that’s going on,” Okri said, adding people “should be careful about unlicensed and cowboy outfits out there”. Okri pointed out that the Booker prize was “being traduced”, though said the foundation was “taking it very seriously”. Prize director Gaby Wood told The Bookseller, “it is appalling for Ben and galling that the Booker’s name should be dragged into this”.
“The digital world is perfect for scamming like that,” Okri sighed. But in happier news, he told us The Famished Road has become only the second African novel to be released as an Everyman Classic.
Kick-the-bucket list for Gyles’s wife
GYLES BRANDRETH has a startling confession. “My wife’s looking forward to my death,” the broadcaster and author writes. “I don’t mean she’s eager for my departure — she’s simply anticipating it with a not-altogether-flattering degree of enthusiasm.” Brandreth explains his wife is thinking about where exactly she might move the moment he kicks the bucket. He adds in The Oldie that she tells him: “I’ve got to think ahead. You know it makes sense.”
Fox still hunting for perfect pub
ACTOR Laurence Fox and politician Richard Tice are still searching for the pub of their dreams. “We’ve got people combing central London,” Tice, the Reform UK leader, said last May. “We want to buy a pub and we want to brand it The Fox and Tice.” But The Londoner hears that Tice and Fox have still not yet been able to find the perfect premises for what they plan to be their “home of free speech and Right-wing comedy”. Is it a case of supply or demand?
Literary judges do the heavy lifting
AUTHOR Tessa Hadley says judging a literary award is “actually quite hard work”. Hadley told The Londoner last night: “It’s a lot of reading. You’re often reading these books twice or three times.” Hadley is chair of judges for the Rathbones Folio Prize, the shortlist of which was announced last night. “It matters for literature that you choose the right books.” She continued: “It’s no good sitting there going, ‘Oh, why’s that won?’ You should get there, be a judge and choose the book that is the best.” Unlike, of course, the Booker prize of 2019, which chose two books to be the best.
‘Insane’ night at catwalk show
A NIGHT of fashion as guests gathered for the Autumn/Winter 2022 show of gender-neutral, luxury Chinese brand, Mithridate at the Wapping Hydraulic Power Station. Witcher actress Freya Allan was joined by models Ikram Abdi Omar, Faiith Henson, and Teah Otomewo. Omar clearly enjoyed it — “insane” was her word of choice. Also there was composer Hans Zimmer’s daughter Zoe, a photographer, and Lady Amelia Windsor.
SW1A
LUCY ALLAN MP thundered last night: “Trying to remove an elected PM with a huge personal mandate, mid term, is anti-democratic.” She might want to have a word with herself. In 2019 she wrote that it was “over for Theresa May… It’s time to start again with a new leader”. MP for the goldfish bowl.
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LISA NANDY took an unexpected detour in Parliament yesterday while debating with Michael Gove. “To misquote Eminem,” she told the House, “Will the real Secretary of State please stand up?” That particular version might not achieve the same worldwide fame as the original — but you never know.
