When a Best-seller Becomes a Disaster - Kathleen Jones on becoming a publishing pariah.
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! The doomed hardback It was a story of luck and also of danger. I was commissioned to write a biography of Catherine Cookson just after she died, for a very modest sum. The estate wanted a northern author and, as a respected literary biographer, they thought I was eminently suitable. But I’m also a natural detec...