MR. TOM DRIBERG'S biography of Lord Beaverbrook, reviewed in our
book pages this week, has had a stormy history. The Daily Express paid for the serial rights before the book was written, and when Mr. Driberg had finished it he flew off in high spirits to Nassau to show the typescript to Lord Beaver- brook. When Lord Beaverbrook read it, both his cordiality and Mr. Driberg's gaiety evaporated. Lord Beaverbrook was shocked by what he had read, and Mr. Driberg was shocked by Lord Beaverbrook's reaction. And so the author returned to England rather sooner than he had originally intended, knowing that his book was considered to be both inaccurate and libellous. The Express neither then nor later demanded specific cuts, but adopted instead the most curious procedure. The typescript was several times sent to the Express, more and more cuts and changes being made on each occasion as sacrifices to propitiate the wrath of Lord Beaverbrook. Each time the book was returned to Mr. Driberg it was accompanied by an intimation that it was still an inaccurate and libellous biography. Eventually, after the book had paid about ten visits to the Altar of Baal and something like 169 cuts and changes had been made, Baal announced that he was now appeased and that publication could take place with impunity. The mighty trumpeting of the Express, praising itself for serialising the book (the money it had already paid for the serial rights would presumably have been lost if it hadn't) and saying that, it had `suppressed nothing', is not therefore a lie exactly. But it is perhaps a shade misleading. During the prolonged rites that preceded publication the Express had innumerable opportu- nities to correct any mistakes in the book. It did not take them. Instead it preferred to select some of the dullest parts for serialisation so that it could point out in footnotes any small errors Mr. Driberg had made. The extracts were also subjected to intermittent barracking from the editor of the Express.
This is certainly a quaint way for an editor to treat a book he is serialising, whether hostile or friendly. I hope that he will extend the practice and when in the future the Express serialises biographies of subjects other than Lord Beaverbrook (who surely gets quite enough mentions as it is in those flashy columns) he will permit them or their relations to indicate in footnotes some, at least, of the grosser inaccuracies.
Previous page
