Revisiting the scene of a disaster - Catherine Cookson and after . . .

I've been blogging over on Authors Electric about the experience of being a best-selling biographer who suddenly finds herself black-listed for no other reason than that of telling an inconvenient truth. Corporate publishing is all about marketing, and sometimes the truth gets in the way. Bankrupting your publisher with an unexpected best-seller and revealing that a literary saint was actually a human being are sins unlikely to be forgiven!  Read the whole sorry story here.

"I have known what it was like to be on the front pages of newspapers, or the subject of a double-page spread inside the Independent.  Television interviews, radio shows – my 15 minutes of fame.  It was fantastic being chauffeur driven across London, with a huge bouquet of lilies and roses on my lap, to a champagne reception. The reviews were glowing and I’ll never forget the experience of walking into WH Smith and seeing my book, in hardback, at number 8 in the best-seller lists.  The six figure sums of money being bandied about were head-turning. ‘You’ll never have to worry about money again in your life,’ my agent said.  I should have known! . . ."  Read on 'When a Best-seller Becomes a Disaster".