The recent forfeiture order placed by the Liverpool police on
W. H. Smith's stock of The Joy of Sex is certain to make someone look stupid, and we shall know who quite soon. What I can tell you already is that by a perverse irony it is the Queen who is being made to look stupid. Although the publishers of The Joy of Sex are Messrs Quartet Books, Dr Alex Comfort's work was conceived, designed and produced by the firm of Mitchell Beazley who then licensed the rights to independent publishers all over the world. It has been a spectacular success, contributing substantially to Mitchell Beazley's soaring export turnover. That is waY the firm won the Queen's Award to IndustrY this year.
Casting the net
If any Christmas present seeker is thinking of buying those perennial BBC bestsellers The Ascent of Man (£5.50) or America (CO may I offer a word of advice? It is riot generally appreciated that unlike most hardbacks these books carry no "net" Price — that is to say they are not subject to the Net Book Agreement under which booksellers are not supposed to sell new books at less than the net price printed on the jacket. It seems that the BBC has taken legal advice on the point and decided not to be a party to the agreement, so that anY bookseller so inclined can sell these BBC titles at less than their listed prices. At least two London shops — the Booksmith branches in Charing Cross Road and Bt. Martin's Lane — are selling America and The Ascent of Man at up to £1 off. With a ,healthy respect for the profit mOtive, the BBC's own shop in Marylebone High Street is selling both at full price.
Mail disorder
Now that the fuss had died down and the cuttings are in, it is possible to see just what a dog's breakfast the media made in writing about Penguin's acquisition of the American Viking Press. But the diet served by the Daily Mail on the morning of the takeover announcement would hardly have been sniffed at by a starving St Bernard. Uninhibited by at least three earlier and accurate press reports on the deal, the Ma" city page waded in to say that "Longrnan Inc., the US offshoot of Pearson LortgMan' will announce tonight that they have bought Viking Press"; the piece went on knowinglY to inform us that Longman and Viking were the two of the leading educational POlishers in America, that both firms Were enjoying a boom in the sales of their English-language text books ("especially in the Mid and Far East") and that those wanting to learn English "prefer our version to that spoken in the US". Penguin, Wh° were actually the prime movers in the Viking deal, were mentioned as an afterthought on the grounds that they als° belonged to the Cowdray empire. Since a great deal of the atoll was incorrect, Penguin telephoned the Mail's city page editor Patrick Sergeant t° suggest gently that a small amendment might be appropriate. Did the intrepid, seeker-after-truth agree to put the recore straight? Not on your life.
BookbuYer
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