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I am my father... Oh Crap
Verily a shitstorm of crazy has rained down upon my head. Not of my own making you understand, and there was nothing more I could have done, but I still feel dumb/confused.
I was in the middle of editing a book, a memoir by a guy who fought during one of the many wars Britain engaged in between the years 1950-1960 (I'm keeping everything vague intentionally). I found I had to stop because I was a little confused. At the beginning of the book it seemed like he was in X squad, but by chapter 6 it looked like he was in Y squad. No biggy, soldiers are often transferred, he mentioned a promotion to section leader. Often people who write their memoirs know the story so well they leave important facts out. It's my job to put them back in.
So I email him, let's call him Bob Crazy. I ask him to tell me exactly what squad, troop and section he was in during the time period the memoir covers. His answer is somewhat fuzzy, saying he was in a certain Captain's troop. This I know, because it's in the book, but what I want is the number, 1 Troop, 2 Troop or 3 Troop, etc. Seems like he doesn't know any more than I do. Then, after a bit of pushing, he sends me an email that makes my tummy flip, part of which I reproduce here:
Note - I hope I mentioned (I think I did) when I first submitted the book that I was acting on my late fathers estate. In relation to this there may be one or two queries (for obvious reasons) that I may not be able to answer, if this is the case I will inform you. In saying this however, I have been closely involved with the MSS throughout the writing process as well as typing and structuring the book. I think I may have been guilty in straying into my fathers persona in dealing with you as I felt comfortable with that method of communication.
So... the upshot is that over the course of 5 months and 30 or so emails, he has been pretending to be his dead father. They have the same name apparently, though now I don't believe anything he says. I know for a fact that his father WAS a soldier at the time and place the memoir says, because I checked the regimental records, but the fact is that I can't take any part of the manuscript at fact value.
My reply to him was essentially 'we have undertaken a false contract', 'seriously reconsider' etc. Am talking to the big bosses about whether to drop the whole book.
Oh lord. I feel sick. The thing is, I made sure the man was real, given his birthdate it was perfectly possible that he was still alive and in his late 70s, I was provided with over 100 photographs of the same individual in the right place and the right time and the manuscript seemed sound. There have been several publishers recently who have been taken in by people pretending to have been soldiers (there was one recently where a guy pretended to have trained the Taliban to fight the Russians, when in fact he spent only two years in the artillery), so we are used to looking out for fake soldiers, not people pretending to be their dead dads!
It looks like Bob Crazy found a typewritten manuscript and a load of photos by Bob Crazy Snr and decided to get them published. Why he didn't tell the truth is beyond me, because we often have memoirs that we publish posthumously, edited by grandchildren etc. BUT HE LIED AND MAY BE MENTAL!!! Argh.
I was in the middle of editing a book, a memoir by a guy who fought during one of the many wars Britain engaged in between the years 1950-1960 (I'm keeping everything vague intentionally). I found I had to stop because I was a little confused. At the beginning of the book it seemed like he was in X squad, but by chapter 6 it looked like he was in Y squad. No biggy, soldiers are often transferred, he mentioned a promotion to section leader. Often people who write their memoirs know the story so well they leave important facts out. It's my job to put them back in.
So I email him, let's call him Bob Crazy. I ask him to tell me exactly what squad, troop and section he was in during the time period the memoir covers. His answer is somewhat fuzzy, saying he was in a certain Captain's troop. This I know, because it's in the book, but what I want is the number, 1 Troop, 2 Troop or 3 Troop, etc. Seems like he doesn't know any more than I do. Then, after a bit of pushing, he sends me an email that makes my tummy flip, part of which I reproduce here:
Note - I hope I mentioned (I think I did) when I first submitted the book that I was acting on my late fathers estate. In relation to this there may be one or two queries (for obvious reasons) that I may not be able to answer, if this is the case I will inform you. In saying this however, I have been closely involved with the MSS throughout the writing process as well as typing and structuring the book. I think I may have been guilty in straying into my fathers persona in dealing with you as I felt comfortable with that method of communication.
So... the upshot is that over the course of 5 months and 30 or so emails, he has been pretending to be his dead father. They have the same name apparently, though now I don't believe anything he says. I know for a fact that his father WAS a soldier at the time and place the memoir says, because I checked the regimental records, but the fact is that I can't take any part of the manuscript at fact value.
My reply to him was essentially 'we have undertaken a false contract', 'seriously reconsider' etc. Am talking to the big bosses about whether to drop the whole book.
Oh lord. I feel sick. The thing is, I made sure the man was real, given his birthdate it was perfectly possible that he was still alive and in his late 70s, I was provided with over 100 photographs of the same individual in the right place and the right time and the manuscript seemed sound. There have been several publishers recently who have been taken in by people pretending to have been soldiers (there was one recently where a guy pretended to have trained the Taliban to fight the Russians, when in fact he spent only two years in the artillery), so we are used to looking out for fake soldiers, not people pretending to be their dead dads!
It looks like Bob Crazy found a typewritten manuscript and a load of photos by Bob Crazy Snr and decided to get them published. Why he didn't tell the truth is beyond me, because we often have memoirs that we publish posthumously, edited by grandchildren etc. BUT HE LIED AND MAY BE MENTAL!!! Argh.
ed himself and then gave birth to himself?
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