I'm about to undertake a project which will be a semi-fictional novel based on a person who's still alive.

I was wondering what the legal position is regarding how far I can go in fictionalising this person's life without getting into libel problems.

Although, I'll be changing his name, it will be quite obvious, I think, who the story is based on from the subject matter and the location (which is important and I don't want to change).

Can anyone help?

Thanks,

Darren.

On one hand, I think I'm right in saying that someone can only successfully sue you for libel if they can prove they've suffered damage to their professional or personal reputation by what you've said, so in theory if everything bad you say is provably true, and every invention is nice, you're in the clear, but I guess that isn't what you'll be doing. On the other hand, you really, really don't want to get as far as the need to prove these things in court.

Your contract with a publisher would indemnify them against any libels in the book, so in theory you'd foot the bill for any action. If they decided to have it read for libel by a specialist lawyer I think you split the bill between you. Not fun either way, and I suppose could be a minus in their decision about whether to take it on.

There are articles in most editions of WAYB and/or Writer's Handbook about libel, which might help, and I'd be willing to bet the Society of Authors has one of their very excellent leaflets about it.

Emma

Thanks Emma that's very helpful. The person concerned is a criminal who was found guilty, so all the bad things would be true. The 'fiction' wouldn't necessarily be something that damages his reputation, just me re-creating(inventing?) his thoughts and motivations, and a glance into his personal life that I couldn't possibly know about. So I'm assuming I'm allowed to tell lies as long as they're not bad lies?

I'll take a look at the sources you mentioned.

Thanks a lot,

Darren.