A CONNOISSEUR'S case opens in the High Court tomorrow. Angry author sues grand university press over its failure to publish his magnum opus. I hesitate to tell you much more because the publisher concerned is the Oxford University Press and Oxford has been tending to get more than its fair share of column inches here. Even so, it's a good tale.
The author is Andrew Malcolm, a philosophy lecturer who spent 10 years writing a 220,000 word 'modern Platonic dialogue' which one expert witness has said might have the same impact as Colin Wilson's The Outsider.
Last week, Malcolm, who is doing his own advocacy, was having a fine old time issuing his own subpoenas to such luminaries as Richard Charkin, formerly of OUP; Sir Michael Atiyah, the mathematician; and the Vice-Chancellor himself, Sir Richard Southwood, Linacre Professor of Zoology.
Malcolm is suing for 'specific performance'. This means getting the press to publish his book. In addition, he is seeking £180,000 in costs and damages. The heart of the case is an exchange of letters and phone calls (tape-recorded) between Malcolm and an OUP editor called Henry Hardy. Malcolm insists that Hardy asked him to spend six months correcting the manuscript in return for a definite promise to publish. The Delegates - OUP is not like other publishers, but is overseen by a board of 'Delegates' drawn from the great and the good of the university - say there is no binding contract.
It seems that Charkin, a thrusting young(ish) soul who was Hardy's superior was not as impressed by the Platonic dialogue as Hardy. He was the one most opposed to publication. Charkin has since left Oxford. He had come from Robert Maxwell's Pergamon Press and is now in charge at Octopus, en route apparently, to the top job at Reed International.
Part of the sub-text in the case is the conflict in style between his sort of publishing and the more stately approach of OUP traditionalists like Hardy and Sir Roger Elliott, Wykeham Professor of Physics, who has been Chief Executive of the Press since 1988. At one point it seemed possible that Lord (Roy) Jenkins, Oxford's Chancellor, might himself be drawn into the fray, but I gather this is not likely to happen. The case is billed as Malcolm versus Oxford University and part of the deal is that it must not be heard by an Oxford-educated judge - a ruling which debars about half the bench. We are promised some two days of entertainment at the end of which we shall know whether or not Malcolm is fighting a lost cause.
Click for the next item in the Malcolm v Oxford saga.