Golden goose
Sir: I was shocked to read Antony Lambton's article on the return of Every- man (Books, 5 October) with its tasteless comments about Lord Weidenfeld and the company I work for. 1 am concerned here, however, with inaccuracies. The article accuses Lord Weidenfeld of 'ignoring his sleeping golden goose' and 'selling it for a derisory sum'. Far from ignoring Everyman, we have maintained and extended the range we publish in paperback. In 18 months we have reissued about 150 titles in a new attractive format and plan to contin- ue this throughout next year at a rate of six titles per month. Lord Lambton, who accuses publishing houses of being 'run by men without any understanding of litera- ture', seems ignorant of Everyman Paper- backs' existence, whereas our annual sales have increased in many instances by up to 30 per cent. As for the 'derisory sum', the agreement by which David Campbell has introduced a new hardback range while we continue to publish in paperback was a commercial, mutually advantageous one recommended by me and our financial director Alan Miles to our shareholders. Lambton's picture of an indifferent Wei- denfeld selling for a song betrays his lack of knowledge of the whole subject he has cho- sen to write about. The most depressing thing is not the standards of book publish- ing but of journalism. What is so difficult about a simple phone call to see if an arti- cle bears any resemblance to the facts?
Christopher Falkus
Publishing Director, Weidenfeld & Nicolson Ltd, 91 Clapham High Street, London SW4
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