News 16 May 2003

ACQUISITION

MAD DOG is the biography of Johnny Adair, an Ulster freedom fighter who was hailed a folk hero but is now languishing in jail. In a single dramatic night earlier this year his power base was stripped from him and his friends and family were chased out of Northern Ireland. It was a degrading end for a man who had commanded fanatical loyalty among his followers. From humble beginnings as a car thief in Belfast, Johnny 'Mad Dog' Adair rose through the ranks of the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters to head its merciless killing machine with a reputation as a Godfather figure. It is not just a Northern Ireland story. It is a story about power and the corruption it results in. The book includes drugs, extortion and prostitution and gives frightening descriptions of his random killing of Catholics. The authors are Hugh Jordan of the Sunday World and David Lister, Ireland correspondent for The Times.

THE SOHO DON will be released in paperback this Autumn. Despite being a true crime book it has a strong literary feel and has been likened to the Ned Kelly 'story' by Peter Carey and James Ellroy's My Dark Places. It has also been likened to Graham Greene:

'It has the feel of Graham Greene's Brighton Rock ... a style and era that I never get tired of reading about.'
Jeff Edwards The Mirror

AUTHORS ARRESTED

At the beginning of this month Liam Clarke (editor of the Sunday Times in Ireland) and his wife Kathryn Johnston were arrested by Northern Ireland security forces. The arrests were in connection with the Martin McGuinness wiretap transcripts which appear in the new edition of their book Martin McGuinness, From Guns to Government. Armed police burst into their home and kept them in cells over night. Their case has now been raised four times in the House of Commons and has been taken to the United Nations by the organization British Irish Rights Watch who are are concerned both about the fact that these journalists were arrested at all and by the manner of the arrests. They argue that the nature of the material they published, while it may very well cause embarrassment in government circles, cannot be said to impinge on official secrets or harm national security. In a letter to the secretary of state for Northern Ireland they pointed out that 'the message that these arrests sends out both to the journalists concerned and to their wider profession is that investigative journalism will be punished. Such oppressive behaviour on the part of the state would rightly be criticised in a right wing dictatorship and should have no part in a developed democracy.'

AWARD

IRISH: THE REMARKABLE SAGA OF A NATION AND A CITY by John Burrowes has been shortlisted for the Saltire Literary Award. The awards are nominated by literary editors.

BEST SELLER BEFORE PUBLICATION!

SHANG A LANG by former Bay City Rollers lead singer Les McKeown is not published until this Autumn but advance orders from his legions of fans have seen it storming to no.48 on www.amazon.co.uk

SPORT

Our many books on Celtic Fooball Club are experiencing an upturn in sales at the moment because the club has just reached its first final in European competition in 34 years. It also means that our forthcoming title CELTIC IN EUROPE is particularly topical. Let's hope that all 50,000 fans who go to the match in Seville buy a copy of the book as a souvenir!

Mickey Vann, author of GIVE ME A RING, is on BBC Radio 5 this Saturday - Chiles on Saturday. He is also going to be on Midweek - BBC Radio 4 on May 28th.

And Finally...

Bill Campbell, Ailsa Bathgate and Mandy Jamieson of Mainstream were at The Groucho Club earlier this week to celebrate publication of MASTERMINDS OF TERROR by Yosri Fouda and Nick Fielding.