Bookend
Bookbuyer
Copyright seems to be everybody's problem these days. A recent edition of the Evening Standard carried, quite by chance, two phrases which could be said to orginate in the household ditty 'Happy Birthday to You '. This, you may beleieve, is harmless enough. The words must be sung, the tune played, in some part of the country every movement of the day. Far • from it. Keith Prowse, theatrical agents, sent in a bill to Shoe Lane for £105, claiming breach of copyright.
Further enquiries revealed that Prowse did indeed own the copyright. They had bought it many years ago and have been desperately trying to protect it ever since. What's more, the Evening Standard discovered it had received a similar bill from Prowse several years ago. On that occasion it had sent off a thirtyshilling cheque and Prowse had brought a successful action against it claiming more money. This time the Evening Standard sent off £5 as copyright fee. So far, no more has been heard from Prowse.
There have been a number of responses to a piece Bookbuyer wrote three weeks ago about mark-ups on new books which might contravene the Net Book Agreement. Further information will be investigated with interest. A correspondent informs me that the very readable Bloomsbury memoir A Boy At The Hogarth Press, published by Whittington Books, could be bought a week after publication — at a substantially inflated ptice.
Bookbuyer was chatting the other night to Maurice Edelman, the Labour MP and prolific political novelist, whose Disraeli in Love was highly praised on publication last year. Things are going well for Edelman. The American paperback rights of Disraeli in Love have been sold for a comfortable sum, and he and his wife are about to move into a National Trust flat at Hughenden — Dizzy's old home. The artist who designed the jacket of the last book has decorated the bathroom with a massive mural showing, inter alia, Disraeli surrounded by nymphs, and Victoria discovering Albert in the company of a much younger and comelier lady. Only one problem has worried Edelman: he has embarked on a sequel to Disraeli in Love. But he can't think of a good title.
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