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Thursday, August 31, 2006

The Scarlet Letter

Posted by on August 31 at 12:26 PM

This is great: A.N. Wilson, a British biographer who writes about poet John Betjeman, got hoaxed via a forged love letter. Wilson, who received the note from one Eve de Harben (an anagram for “Ever Been Had”), published it as evidence of a nonexistent affair—but the first letter of every sentence spells: “A.N. Wilson is a shit.” Prime suspect: A rival biographer who also writes about John Betjeman. (The latter, as it happens, has a very pretty headstone.)

Full story here.

(Hooray for London, where people care enough to have literary feuds with teeth.)