🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan23.181520.18783@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> jebright@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (James R Ebright) writes:

   In article <C19KHJ.AuL@csfb1.fir.fbc.com> uunet!csfb1!pjb writes:
   >Sorry, I can't stand it anymore. Will someone please tell me/us
   >some details re: Spycatcher. Author or Publisher and where it
   >was/is available and where it is/was banned ?

   SPY CATCHER The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intellegence Officer
   By Peter Wright with Paul Greengrass
   Viking Penguin Inc. 40 West 23rd Street, NY, NY 10010 USA
   (c) Peter Wright, 1987
   ISBN 0-670-82055-5
   Lib of Congress Cat Card # 87-40243

   Available everywhere except the UK where it was alleged to violate the
   Official Secrets Act...

This is only partially true. The sale and distribution of this book was
suspended in the UK while the government went to ridiculous lengths to
suppress it. [I can't remember if the government used any statutory
powers or if the publishers held off to avoid prosecution - contempt
of court, the Official Secrets Act, etc - while the case against
Wright was in progress.] The courts eventually threw the Government's
case out because the book's contents were widely known because it had
been published in other countries.

While all this was going on, the book wasn't banned. People could (and
did) import copies. Once the courts gave a final ruling, the book
eventually went on sale in the UK. It was then discredited when Wright
claimed to have made up some of its allegations - like the plot
against then Prime Minister Harold Wilson - so that the book would get
a lot of publicity and generate extra sales.

		Jim