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Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Wednesday, November 09, 2005 1:40 pm by Cristina   No comments
Remember this? First of all we're sorry to say we hadn't read Sean Fletcher's comment until now. True, we haven't read the book so we can't say. We were just reporting what was said, and it did sound similar to us. Plagiarisms can't be glaringly obvious or everyone - first of all the editor - would spot them. When authors copy from other books they try and disguise the text.

But now even Judith Kelly, the author of Rock Me Gently, has spoken and admitted to being a plagiarist:

Now Judith Kelly, the author, has spoken about the frustrations that led her to lift long passages from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock and Hilary Mantel’s Fludd for her memoir. Blaming her own ignorance and lack of a formal education, she said: “I am not a writer and I never will be. I’m just a fool. It’s a tragedy really — such a stupid thing to do.”

Well, we all want to be writers, don't we? But the thing is knowing your own abilities and how far they will lead you. You can't only blame Ms Kelly though. The manuscript was surely read by an editor, who completely ovelooked (or pretended to, at least) these similarities.

Ms Kelly does say that the basic facts are true, only she expressed them similarly to those other books she had read and took notes from. She has now rewritten those passages and hopes Bloomsbury will republish the book. We'll see.

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