A DIRECTOR at the Scottish firm which controversially published WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange's autobiography against his wishes said the book is a definitive account of its subject's life and not a "work in progress" as he has claimed.
Nick Davies, the publishing director at Canongate who oversaw the genesis of The Unauthorised Autobiography of Julian Assange, spoke out after Mr Assange accused the company of “duplicity” and “screwing people over to make a buck” after they decided to release the book even though he has disowned it.
The activist signed a high-profile deal to publish his memoirs with Canongate, which was founded in Edinburgh, but later backed out and refused to co-operate -- although he was unable to give back more than £500,000 of a £930,000 advance which had already been handed over.
The book released yesterday is based on a manuscript handed over in March by the autobiography’s ghost writer, Scottish author Andrew O’Hagan, which was compiled with the help of 50 hours of conversation with Mr Assange.
After it hit the shelves yesterday, Mr Assange released a statement saying it was “an unfinished and erroneous draft” that was supposed to have been heavily revised and edited before publication.
But Mr Davies denied these claims, saying: “We think it’s a compelling and fascinating read and we would not have published it if we did not.”
He added: “The book that was published yesterday is the book that was delivered by Julian’s ghost writer on March 31. Julian has had five and a half months to come back to us with the revisions he claims were due and has not done so.
“During that time he has not handed in a single edit or rewrite request. In short, he has not delivered anything in writing which would change the book.
“He signed up to write an autobiography and we clearly set out the subject matter that we hoped would be in the book. That’s what he delivered.”
The row between Mr Assange and the publishing house broke out after the Australian withdrew from a contract to write his memoirs in June.
However, the £500,000 first payment of his advance from Canongate had already been handed over to the law firm fighting his extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted on charges of rape.
Unable to reclaim their money, the firm decided to release the book anyway -- an act which brought a furious reaction from Mr Assange, who claimed that no-one from the publishers had been in contact since June and that his pleas for a meeting had been ignored.
However, Mr Davies said: “We wrote to him 12 days ago in the interest of transparency to say that we would go to print within that time limit. He had an opportunity to go to court at that stage and get an injunction.”
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