If you want an insight into the seduction habits of publishers, go to amazon.co.uk and check out the latest in dating guides. You'll see these titles paired together: The Game by Neil Strauss, and The Layguide: The Rules of the Game, by Tony Clink. The two books appear oddly similar, and their pairing seems to be the result of a sleazy trick devised by one publisher to pick up customers from another. It started in May when the small independent publisher, Canongate, managed to outmanoeuvre HarperCollins UK to buy the British rights to the latest book by bestselling American author Neil Strauss, a book about seducing women. Very cross, HarperCollins UK bought a different book about seducing women that had been published in the US a year ago, changed its subtitle to "rules of the game," designed the cover so that it looked like The Game, and released it as a £7.99 paperback two weeks before Canongate brought out its £16.99 hardback. (Weirdly, Neil Strauss is published in America by HarperCollins US, so the UK outfit appears to be ambushing one of its sister-company's authors.) Jamie Byng, publisher of Canongate, describes this as "the most low-down, cheap and cynical bit of publishing I have ever seen," and is suing HarperCollins UK for "passing off," as lawyers might put it. "The Layguide is a misogynistic and unpleasant book that is being linked to our far superior book and undermining our sales," Byng explains. That said, Byng does like his myths. (This October Canongate launches its mammoth project to publish great myths rewritten by famous authors in partnership with 33 other publishers around the world—every year for the forseeable future.) Is this Byng playing up to his own mythic self-projection—a David to HarperCollins's Goliath? Or is it, rather, that the Layguide is like Jacob, dressing up as Esau to deceive blind old customers into giving it their blessing?
The Hampstead chair man shifts his butt
Hampstead Heath has lost the gigantic desk and chair that has been there all summer, an amusing if absurd attraction for toddlers and picnickers alike. It was given a royal send-off one sunny Sunday afternoon, with wine and jazz, and in the background the merry whack of the Corporation of London's annual conker championships. But do not mourn. Its maker, artist Giancarlo Neri, has just signed up with Royal Parks to join a team of 25 artists, chefs and other celebrities to design 25 deckchairs that will be auctioned at Christie's next year. If sponsorship can be arranged, copies will then abound throughout London's royal parks and you could be sitting pretty in, rather than under, a Neri chair. To draw attention to this project—called "Deckchair Dreams"—Royal Parks has commissioned Neri (now inescapably "Mr Chair Man") to create a special installation of deckchairs at this year's Frieze art fair (21st-24th October).
Prospect on stage
David Edgar's new play at the National, Playing With Fire—about old Labour, new Labour and the problems of multiculturalism—could have sprung straight from the Prospect songsheet. Indeed, Prospect is quoted twice in the programme notes on the conflict between solidarity and diversity, while further comments from Trevor Phillips and Melanie Phillips alternately attack ("the wit and wisdom of Enoch Powell") and defend the line of the magazine. It's a shame the play didn't go down better with critics, who wanted a clearer line. Theatre may be better suited to ideological clashes than progressive dilemmas.
Bungee jumping at the Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House's ROH2 programmers are about to branch out—well, more specifically, up—by playing host to Stuffed, a new piece from former De La Guarda dancer Wendy Hesketh, who has cornered the market in what she calls "bungee-assisted dance."
