Rushdie threatens to sue over bodyguard's tell-all
Last Updated: Saturday, August 2, 2008 | 10:45 AM ET
CBC News
Salman Rushdie, seen here lecturing in Atlanta in February, says a book by a former bodyguard incorrectly portrays him as 'nasty, tightfisted' and 'arrogant.' (John Amis/Associated Press)Author Salman Rushdie, who recently made the long list for the Booker Prize for his latest novel The Enchantress of Florence, is demanding a British publisher pull a book written by one of his former bodyguards.
On Her Majesty's Service is co-written by Ron Evans, a former police officer who was on a team guarding Rushdie after Iran's then-revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued the decree calling for his death in 1989. The Ayatollah accused the author of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad in his 1988 novel The Satanic Verses.
Rushdie's lawyer, Mark Stephens, confirmed Saturday a letter was sent Wednesday to the publisher of the book but there has been no reply. The 61-year-old writer is threatening to sue John Blake Publishing over the book.
Rushdie told The Guardian newspaper that the book portrayed him as "mean, nasty, tight-fisted, arrogant and extremely unpleasant" and adds, "In my humble opinion, I am none of those things."
The book claims Rushdie billed the police force for officers' overnight stays at his house; that guards nicknamed him "Scruffy"; and that at one point they locked him in a closet while they went to the pub.
Rushdie called Evans' claims "fictitious" and "absurd."
"It is like a bad comedy. My relations with the protection officers were cordial and I am still friendly with a few of them. At the end of my nine years of protection, they held a reception for me. I had a lot of sympathy and understanding from the police."
The writer goes on to say that Evans has aggrandized his own role in the protection team and that the police officer acted as a driver.
The author was forced into hiding until the Iranian government declared in 1998 it would not back any effort to kill Rushdie.
Rushdie, who spends much of his time in New York, recently said he is thinking of writing about his time in hiding.
