Or bringing a whole new meaning to the idea of getting your book into bookshops...

Emma

There was an article in the Sunday Times today (it made the front page) titled: Booker winners need not apply. In a nutshell, a reporter had sent material from two books, both of which had, in the Seventies, taken the Booker home - Naipaul’s In A Free State, and Stanley Middleton’s Holiday - changing only the author’s and some characters’ names, to twenty agents and publishers, with all but one rejecting them straight away.

Perhaps if the reporter had used a famous name he might have got away with it? I have read and reread Mary Stewart's arthurian trilogy and I thought they were great. However upon reading Stormy petrel I just couldn't understand how anyone ever wanted to publish that piece of drivel. I had to force myself to read it several times as an example of bad writing.