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Article: MEDIA: MY GREATEST MISTAKE #27 PETER WILBY EDITOR OF THE 'NEW STATESMAN' 'Somewhere between the wine and the brandy, he told me a really good story...'
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 8, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2002 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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When I was a very young journalist at The Observer, I signed two
large book contracts. One was to write a history of Britain in the
1930s, based on newly released records from the Public Record Office,
and the other was about British students - it was the 1960s, and
there was a lot of interest in what students did. Thinking I could
keep up a job, write a couple of books in my lunch hour, walk on
water and so on, I signed. I received very good advances for them
both, but in the end I wrote only one, and it wasn't very good. The
other, I did nothing about. But the American publisher never asked
for it: it called me up when it was three years overdue and asked how
it was going; I said it was ...