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Charkin slams 'absurd' claims

28.04.08 Benedicte Page

Bloomsbury executive director Richard Charkin today dismissed as "absurd" the claims made in the Daily Telegraph that the reason Joanna Trollope has taken her hardback publishing to Transworld was because she was unhappy at Bloomsbury's focus on superstar J K Rowling.

Charkin refused to comment on the reasons for Trollope's move, saying "We said to Joanna we'd keep this between us", but he added that it was "not surprising" if authors wanted their hardback and paperback editions published by the same house. Trollope's paperbacks are already published by Transworld imprint Black Swan.

In response to allegations made in the Daily Telegraph that Bloomsbury faced growing author unrest over its favourable treatment of Rowling, Charkin said: "It's a ridiculous story and could be damaging. Who the hell [are they talking about]? I've no idea who they talked to. It's absolutely absurd and I can't think where it came from or why the Daily Telegraph considered it a story worth running."

A statement from Bloomsbury declared: "At no time has the backing of our other authors been anything less than 100% as evidenced by the great success of new and established authors such as Margaret Atwood, Susanna Clarke, Justin Cartwright, William Boyd, David Guterson, Kate Summerscale, Louis Sachar, Jeffrey Eugenides, Donna Tartt, Jon McGregor, Khaled Hosseini, Ben Macintyre and many others."

Charkin added that Bloomsbury did not plan to take any action against the Daily Telegraph.

Benedicte Page Richard Charkin Bloomsbury Home Joanna Trollope

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Comments on this article

By Clive Keeble

Amazing how this virtual non-story gets so many column inches and yet the current forced redundancies of the skilled print workers at Butler & Tanner gets scant coverage. The B&T print workers have been treated despicably.

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By nonsense

It's hardly a non story. If Bloomsbury's top authors are really revolting then it's a big shift for the publisher in question. printers are ten a penny; bloomsbury is unique.

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By Emma B

Nonsense, nonsense: 150 year old printers who employ 300 people are not ten a penny.

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By Clive Keeble

I seldom reply to anonymous comments, however this is a special case. My business is in the same parliamentary constituency as B&T printworks : B&T was until its foreclosure on Saturday a legend here is Somerset, a high-quality sheet printer producing truly excellent books. The staff have been dumped at a month end without their wages etc : the manner in which they received their redundancy notices is despicable. The background details as well as comments from workers, union representatives etc can be readily found on PrintWeek.com (there were even some possible opportunities relayed by other printers). Time served printers, of many decades working experience, as at B&T are not 'ten a penny' : they are the very lifeblood of the UK book production industry. Believe you me, the 287 B&T staff have been very wronged by their private equity employers.

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By Andrew

In response to the comment by nonsense I would like to say that you clearly know nothing about the British book printing industry. Many of the staff at B&T will have spent a lifetime with the company and will have skills that printers in the Far East can't begin to imagine. You won't find a 10 year old child working a 60 hour week anywhere in the UK printing industry. Some people are so shallow - let us all spare a minute to think of the 300 highly skilled staff who now face an uncertain future.

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By nonsense

I said the Bloomsbury story was not a 'non story': that much we can all agree on. I said nothing about the 300 highly skilled, or whatever, print workers. Publishers will get their books printed elsewhere: fact. Bloomsbury will not find Trollope, or other top authors, so replaceable. Sorry everyone.

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