COBBLERS
A prize-winning novelist has won a settlement of more than £100,000 after she claimed to have become so intoxicated by fumes from a nearby shoe factory that she was reduced to writing thrillers.
Joan Brady, who beat Andrew Motion and Carol Anne Duffy to win the Whitbread Prize in 1993 with her book The Theory of War, has received £115,000 in an out-of-court settlement after she suffered numbness in her hands and legs allegedly caused by solvents used by Conker, a cobbler based next to her home in Totnes, Devon.
She told The Times that the fumes were so bad that she was unable to concentrate on writing her highbrow novel, Cool Wind from the Future, and instead wrote a brutal crime story, Bleedout, which she found easier. The violent plot of the book also allowed her to vent her frustrations on the factory and South Hams District Council, which failed initially to detect the smells. According to Nielsen Book-scan, Bleedout has sold a respectable 10,000 copies.
Joan Brady, who beat Andrew Motion and Carol Anne Duffy to win the Whitbread Prize in 1993 with her book The Theory of War, has received £115,000 in an out-of-court settlement after she suffered numbness in her hands and legs allegedly caused by solvents used by Conker, a cobbler based next to her home in Totnes, Devon.
She told The Times that the fumes were so bad that she was unable to concentrate on writing her highbrow novel, Cool Wind from the Future, and instead wrote a brutal crime story, Bleedout, which she found easier. The violent plot of the book also allowed her to vent her frustrations on the factory and South Hams District Council, which failed initially to detect the smells. According to Nielsen Book-scan, Bleedout has sold a respectable 10,000 copies.
[from the Times]
I was in Totnes, Devon yesterday, actually wearing shoes by Conker and underpants by Tommy Hilfiger, in case you are interested.
In all my visits to this interesting market town I have never smelt anything other than the strong fumes of Marijuana. They add immensely to the quaint ambience of the place.
I only wish I had enough hair for a pony tail then I am sure I would fit in better.
posted by Uriah Robinson at 7:46 AM
6 Comments:
You have a prima facie case. Your constant inhaling of shoe-factory fumes has obviously deprived you of your ability to concentrate on John Bunyan and Samuel Richardson and forced you to read brutal crime novels instead.
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
I just realized that I have been in Totnes. I hate to make you think like an American, but do you think I could sue anybody there?
===================
Detectives Beyond Borders
"Because Murder Is More Fun Away From Home"
http://detectivesbeyondborders.blogspot.com/
And I have been in Philadelphia in 1979. I must be able to sue Mr Nutter, Ben Franklin, Betsy Ross or someone for something? ;)
It's a relief to read this story because now I know what is wrong with me. It's years of inhaling the fumes from the sea, (I live between the harbours of Langstone and Chichester on Hayling Island) not to mention the smell of the mud at low tide that has caused me to write my marine mystery crime novels and thrillers instead of the classic literary masterpiece I was surely destined to pen. Now I wonder who I could sue???
Pauline, my wife comes from Gosport so now I know it must be the smell of sea that causes her to react as she does. ;)
I am sure you give far more pleasure with your Andy Horton books than these so called literary efforts. And you support worthy causes like the Fire Service Benevolent Fund.
Thanks. Andy Horton is in Gosport Marina living on a boat in the book I'm currently writing. But not for long...!
Post a Comment
<< Home