Tim Waterstone pens thinly disguised saga of book world treachery
Book chain founder's new novel includes caricatures of big names from publishing and newspapers
Vanessa Thorpe,  The Observer, Sunday 4 July 2010


Tim Waterstone made an unsuccessful attempt to buy back his ailing book chain four years ago. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Observer

The entrepreneur Tim Waterstone, founder of the book chain that bears his name, has set an intriguing summer puzzle for his friends and former associates.
His new novel, In For A Penny, In For A Pound, is a searing treatment of the world of books that contains recognisable caricatures of several figures in publishing, newspapers and high finance.

The key dramatis personae include an adulterous, elderly Labour politician; two rival brothers in a newspaper-owning dynasty; an Australian multimillionaire; an agony aunt who is also a successful novelist; and a brash book-buying chief at a chain of stores named "Waterwells", likely to be an exaggerated version of Scott Pack, the Waterstone's buyer who is now a well-known books blogger and editor at HarperCollins publishing.

Set in London in the 1990s, the saga tells of double-dealing, infidelity, deceit and hypocrisy. Waterstone, who made an unsuccessful attempt to buy back his ailing book chain four years ago, has hinted that the book is full of disguised portraits of people who have crossed his path.

Laura Palmer, Waterstone's editor at the publisher Corvus, said that, while some of the characters in the book are amalgams of real people, others were inspired by just one person.

"In the case of the agony aunt and author Anne Lavery we decided to change a few of the details so that there were not so many clues," she said.

Nevertheless the possibility that broadcaster Anna Raeburn may be the target has been raised by some who have read the manuscript, while the Barclay Brothers and the Murdoch family are more clearly parodied.

The book, out in September, is the first novel Waterstone has written for 10 years and provides a safe place for a fictionalised account of elements of his career. Commentators have often noted that his own life reads like a business thriller.

In 1989 a share of Waterstone's book chain was bought by WH Smith, a company that had previously made him redundant, and they bought him out completely in 1993 for £47m. Five years later Waterstone bought the company back for £300m in a joint venture with EMI.
The company then merged with HMV record shops and Waterstone became chair of HMV Media for three years. After leaving, he launched a failed bid to buy back Waterstone's again.


Palmer said the author told her that his novel "is a kaleidoscope of many real characters and experiences, observed over many years".
The story revolves around the life of Hugh Emerson, owner of a publishing house which is in financial trouble.
The Guardian.