My new book may feature someone famous, rather briefly, and i want to know if i can get away with writing a conversation with them speaking. It won't be derogatory or reflect badly on them, so is it okay to do this??

Any views appreciated.

Casey

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Mind you, i'm just thinking about that book about the royal family moving onto a council estate, who wrote it now, the woman who wrote Adrian Mole? anyway, she got away with 'speaking' on behalf of our monarch, so maybe i needn't worry...

I don't see why not. I think the only trouble you can get into would be if it was libellous, and obviously it's not. You could even be cheeky and ask them to the launch!

(If you're really worried, ask the Society of Authors)

Emma

Hmm, maybe i should do that...

'invite them to the launch' - aww, I love such confidence

Casey

Just thinking about the writers of Spitting Image, they got away with murder...

Ah, Spitting Image! Those were the days.

I don't think any politician would have dared sue Spitting Image - imagine how much damage they'd do to themselves. More seriously, someone who thinks they've been libelled/slandered has to prove that their livelihood or reputation has been damaged. Doesn't sound as if you'd be doing that, Casey, and even if you did portray them as a grumpy old sod, unless you added in that they'd actually done something bad which they hadn't, I don't think they could sue you. (Dislike you, yes, but that's different).

Emma

Ah, well i don't mind being disliked. Thanks, Emma.

I thought comedy was slightly different because it is obviously lampooning someone and not pretending that they actually saying it. Although Private Eye presumably is a middle ground as you never quite know if it is fictitious...

Is this not right?

Peter Morgan's done a lot of famous people talking in his dramas - what's the situation with that?

No one can stop you putting them in your book, as long as you don't libel them. (Would it be slander if spoken in a play? Dunno). If you make them. in your novel. stand on their head in Trafalgar Square naked, they have to prove that a) it's not true (i.e. it's a fact, not an opinion) and b) people believed it was true to the extent that their reputation or livelihood suffered. If it's obviously a novel I think they'd have a hard time proving b). Satire's a dodgier area, I guess: Private Eye of course was sued up hill and down dale, but then they're telling these things for true.

Emma

Viz magazine has run two decades' worth of cartoon stories about famous people, ranging from the harmlessly surreal ("Paul Daniels's Jet-Ski Journey To The Centre Of Elvis") to rather more viciously satirical swipes such as a story about The Duke Of Edinburgh making racist remarks to an earthquake victim in China. They've only ever been sued once, when they ran a cartoon called The Thieving Gypsy Bastards which was perhaps not the brightest move in their career. In a spirited response, after the court case, they printed an apology to the Romany peoples and ran a much longer cartoon called The Nice Honest Gypsies in which a family of gypsies spent the entire time running around returning five pound notes that to people who had accidentally dropped them.

Anyway, my point is, if Viz can get away with having Jimmy Saville in charge of an Underwater Owl Hospital or Elton John running a benefit fraud syndicate, it's probably OK for you to portray them acting vaguely normally.

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Or (just remembered my favourite example) the story where Jamie Oliver was on board a plane that crash landed in the Andes, after which the survivors had to eat the dead passengers to survive. You might think the punchline would have involved Jamie cooking up all the cadavers "wiv a pukka wodge of coriander malarky" or somesuch, but no, it was that all the passengers survived happily for months dining on the dead chef's enormous fat tongue.

I suppose Viz are mostly safe because their stories are so bizarre that nobody could possibly mistake them for the truth. Perhaps it's best to stay away from celebrity portrayals which are believable but defamatory. For example we might all believe that certain politicians are corrupt or racist or wife-beaters &c. but probably best not to show them doing it in print.

I recall the "Dear Bill" letters in Private Eye, (since published in book form and a play). Written by Richard Ingrams and John Wells. Spoof letters supposedly written by Dennis Thatcher.

Oh yes, they were fantastic!

LOL griff!

I've emailed the SOA about this and a contact i have at agency - if i get any response i'll let you know. But i'm sure you're all right, as long as i'm sensible about it, it probably won't matter.

Casey

Well, my contact at one of the agencies reckoned i would be all right.

Hi I thought I would resurrect this thread rather than start a new one. I am think I am all right here but I need to be sure. I am writing a thriller (fiction) that takes one of my characters to Las Vegas to investigate a case ten years ago. I am considering my character meeting with the mayor of the time (Jan Laverty Jones) to ask her help, as she was a witness in the conviction of the suspect at the time. The meeting will cover a couple of pages of the book and there is nothing derogatory or libellous in the conversation. I was just concerned whether it was ethical to do this.

Thanks for your help. GLENN.