My Reading Problem: Caroline Kennedy – My Publishing Journey @StephenWardBook

My Publishing Journey

Firstly I have to admit I was extremely fortunate in my original publishing journey. It all seemed to happen so swiftly and so easily. I had heard of writers struggling to get their manuscripts noticed, receiving numerous rejections and searching desperately for an agent who would put them on their books. Not so for me.

I realized I had the makings of a sensational book, i.e. it was not the accepted story of “The Profumo Affair” but a totally new look at the case with hard evidence demonstrating government wrongdoing, police corruption, judicial abuse of power and an Establishment bent on seeking revenge. At the same time I wanted to do justice to the story and had doubts about my ability to write it so that the greatest number of people would read it and reviewers would take it seriously.

So I decided to offer the research to a writer known for his investigative books – David Yallop (author of such best-selling books as “In God’s Name”, “The Day the Laughter Stopped” and “Beyond Reasonable Doubt”). I didn’t know David. I had never met him. But I had read his books and felt he was the right person to approach. I found out the name of his agent, Jenne Casseroto, wrote to her, and asked her if I could show him my material on Stephen Ward. To whet his appetite I included some of the research. To my amazement and thrill David Yallop called me less than 24 hours later and asked me to come to his house to show him what I had discovered that was so different from the accepted story about “The Profumo Affair”.

A day later I was in David Yallop’s house in North London with tapes, papers, documents, letters, interview transcripts all spread out on his living room floor. David, his wife Anna and myself pored through the research material most of the night. And then I posed the question, “Will you write the book, David?” He replied he would have loved to but he was on a deadline to write his own book. “However,” he said, “I want to introduce you to my publisher, Tom Maschler of Jonathan Cape, he will absolutely love this story.”

David Yallop kept his word. Within two days I was sitting in Tom Maschler’s office and it took David and me no time at all to convince him that this was going to be a special book. Tom was thrilled with the subject and impressed by the research. I expressed doubts, however, that I could do the book justice and asked his advice. He immediately suggested teaming up with Phillip Knightley, the long time investigative journalist at the Insight Team on the Sunday Times and a world-renowned expert on Intelligence Services and espionage. “This book,” announced Tom, “will be a number one best seller!” And he was right!