Law firm claims responsibility for Galbraith leak

19 July 2013 Books+Publishing

London law firm Russells Solicitors has claimed responsibility for leaking J K Rowling’s identity as the writer Robert Galbraith, reports the Bookseller. In a statement the firm said: ‘We, Russells Solicitors, apologise unreservedly for the disclosure caused by one of our partners, Chris Gossage, in revealing to his wife’s best friend, Judith Callegari, during a private conversation that the true identity of Robert Galbraith was in fact J K Rowling.’ Callegari subsequently tweeted the information to the Sunday Times columnist India Knight, who broke the story. The firm added that the leak ‘was not part of any marketing plan and that neither J K Rowling, her agent nor publishers were in any way involved’. Rowling has also released a statement saying she is ‘very angry’ that her trust in the firm has been misplaced. ‘It has not been pleasant to wonder for days how a woman whom I had never heard of prior to Sunday night could have found out something that many of my oldest friends did not know,’ said Rowling. Earlier in the week Rowling’s agent Neil Blair responded to rumours that the leak was part of the publisher’s marketing plan. ‘We would have been pretty poor planners with no books being ready for sale. Surely any savvy plotter would have only leaked once books had been stockpiled,’ Neil told the Bookseller.

Category: International news