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Rushdie set to sue over new book

Hasan Suroor

Author says it portrays him as ‘mean and arrogant’ and wants publisher to withdraw memoir

Salman Rushdie

LONDON: For a master of fiction to protest against what may well be a bit of creative licence may seem the ultimate irony. But Salman Rushdie, who has now threatened to sue the publishers of an unflattering book about him by a former police officer, Ron Evans, argues that there is a difference between free speech and libel. And he will not have his “character destroyed” by a “stupid book” that seeks to present wholly “made up” incidents as facts.

“This is not a free speech issue, this is libel — there is a difference between those two things. I can defend the truth, I will not have my character destroyed and presented to the world as something that it is not. I am not trying to prevent him from publishing his stupid book but if they publish it as it is there will be consequences and there will be a libel action,” Sir Salman told The Guardian in comments published on Saturday. Mr. Evans was a member of the Scotland Yard team which protected Sir Salman when he faced death threats from fanatics over the publication of Satanic Verses. In his forthcoming book, On Her Majesty’s Service: My Incredible Life in the World’s Most Dangerous Close Protection Squad, an account of his 30-year-career as a protection officer, Mr. Evans portrays Sir Salman as “mean, nasty, tight-fisted, arrogant and extremely unpleasant.”

Mr. Evans claims that Sir Salman’s “unkempt” appearance prompted the police to give him the nickname ‘Scruffy.’ The book, which is said to be littered with what Sir Salman called “totally made up” incidents, is being hotly debated on the Internet, giving it the much-needed oxygen of free publicity ahead of its publication next week.

Among the allegations Mr. Evans makes is that Sir Salman (at the time he was simply “Mr”; the knighthood came later) was so “difficult” that his guards “got fed up with him.” And one day they allegedly “locked him in a cupboard under the stairs and all went to the local pub for a pint or two.”

“When they were suitably refreshed they came back and let him out,” he writes.

Sir Salman dismissed it as nonsense. “The simple fact of the matter is that nothing of this sort happened. My relationship with my protection team was always cordial, certainly entirely professional. This kind of absurd behaviour never occurred. There are three references to drinking on duty — it is absolutely forbidden for police officers, particularly in possession of firearms, to drink on duty. They did not do so, he said in an interview to The Guadian.

Sir Salman also rubbished the claim that he asked his guards to pay £45 each when they took some wine bottles from the cellar of a friend’s safe house where he was staying. “The idea of them raiding my friend’s wine cellars [and] then me asking them to pay for this is completely fictitious.” He said that his relationship with his guards was “the exact opposite of what has been written.”

Another of Mr. Evans’ claims that has riled Sir Salman is that he billed the police for rent when they stayed overnight in his house for his protection. “We were paying or, rather, the taxpayer was paying Rushdie to protect him,” Mr. Evans writes.

Sir Salman said it was the police who made the offer to pay rent because of the high cost of renting safe accommodation. “That was an offer made to me by senior officers of special branch, it was never a request of mine. To say that I was trying to extort money from them for my protection is an obscene distortion of truth,” he said.

Sir Salman’s lawyers have reportedly written to John Blake Publishing asking them to withdraw the book and remove the “falsehoods relating to our client and his friends.” Or face the consequences.

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