Lord George-Brown's memoirs: a statement
The Press Council has upheld a complaint brought before it by Miss Livia Gollancz (on behalf of Victor Gollancz Ltd) against The Spectotor for publishing a review of Lord George-Brown's memoirs before the advertised publication date (March 29, 1971). The Spectator maintained that copies of the book were available for sale in Colchester and Horsham in the week prior to publication and that the substance of the book had already been published in the Sunday Times. Miss Gollancz said that the copies in Colchester and Horsham had been displayed in error and were withdrawn after a few hours without a copy being sold, and that the extracts in the Sunday Times were by no means the substance of the book. The Press Council's adjudication was : In reviewing books the embargo system is generally beneficial to the Press. Without it there would Ire a danger of lowering standards because books might be reviewed without adequate consideration.
Any criticism of the system by editors should be taken up by them with the book publishers but an editor should not take it upon himself to break an embargo. The fact that in Colchester the book was, through a mistake, on sale for a few hours but not sold did not constitute justification for the action of The Spectator in publishing a review before the embargo date.
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