Yup, a pirated edition of the banned book seems to be doing the rounds of Mumbai all of a sudden. Although the book has been listed for quite some time (though currently unavailable), not many people order from Amazon in India, thanks to the high shipping charges. I thought 400 bucks was quite a steal till GE's post made me realise I'd overpaid. Interestingly, I got the contact details of the peddler from a comment/spam ad, that he left on K's blog. Very good targeted advertising - K deserves a cut! I'll probably put up a detailed review on Amazon sometime, but so far it seems that the Ambanis may just have done Hamish McDonald a favour by getting it banned. It's not as excitingly defamatory as contraband is expected to be. First five pages can be read free of cost :-)
I'd like to use this platform to make a clarification, if I may.
ReplyDeleteMy name is Hamish MacDonald. I'm a fiction writer in Scotland, and the holder of the domain name hamishmacdonald.com. Please note the spelling: M-A-C Donald.
An Australian journalist named Hamish McDonald (M-C, not M-A-C) is the author of The Polyester Prince. I have no connection to him whatsoever, yet I receive an awful lot of correspondence from people looking for this book. I honestly can't help in any way with that.
Ambani sounds like an interesting character, but please, please -- no more letters about this book!
All the best to the readers of this blog, and good luck finding the book. You'd think with all the interest the publisher would be willing to do a reprint.
Cheers,
apologies!
ReplyDeletein fact even if one searches for an M-C Donald, your site comes up as the number 2 result in Google! Maybe a blog post about this on your blog itself will help in clearing the confusion.
Sorry once again & Best Wishes
I actually did write a blog post about this a while back, hoping to clarify the situation, but then I got even *more* letters about it just because I mentioned it, creating more of a link between the subject and my blog.
ReplyDeleteI’ve posted a comment about this on your blog; I hope you don’t mind. Since you’re (hopefully) going to appear as the most recent conversation about this book and about the man in question, I hope people will see the note before they write me.
There’s been so much interest in this businessman and the book about him, I’m really surprised that the publisher keeps this book out of print. I’m happy to hear that people are at least able to get copies, albeit illegally now, so maybe they’ll stop asking me for them! I do publish my own books through a micropress I run, but I swear I’d make a lot more money if I published this one instead!
Cheers,
LOL - Google has weird ways. I had half a mind to update my post with a mention of this confusion till I realised that it would make life even worse for you (since google gives more priority to linkages than absolute page views)! So i've just removed the link altogether.
ReplyDeleteBtw - the Ambani family is so powerful that they've threatened legal action against anyone who publishes the book in india and so far no one wants to take them up the challenge!
Maybe this could be a nice short story idea for you ... a guy who gets into a lot of trouble because of a google-created misunderstanding :-)
It’s OK, JK Rowling is doing the same thing here in my town: “You can’t publish anything I don’t want you to!” Even worse, she’s never even invited me to her castle! (Not knowing that I exist may be part of the reason.)
ReplyDeleteDefamation of character — is that the basis of the threat? It’s funny how people leap to his defence in online discussions, as if he needs it. He has enough bags of cash and has dealt so fast and loose with the rules in the past that you’d think he’d be beyond caring what people have to say about him.
I posted my comment to your site, too. Thanks for the opportunity to do that.
That’s a fun idea, about someone having his life threatened because of being mis-Googled. I’m sure the mistaken identity thing has been done (oh yeah, Shakespeare), but still, that would be a good modern take on the idea. Should I use it, I’ll make sure to give you credit. Or you can sue me, whichever. (Seems to be how people do things these days.)
Cheers,