The Register®

Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/21/assange_unauthorised/

Assange™ pens world's first unauthorised autobiography

WikiLeaks supremo's bid to censor self fails as book goes on sale

By Andrew Orlowski

Posted in Media, 21st September 2011 15:50 GMT

Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V

Julian Assange's autobiography is released tomorrow – despite the objections of one Julian Assange.

Canongate is the publisher for the first instalment of the memoirs of the WikiLeaks founder. A deal worth $1.5m was signed in December, and Scottish novelist Andrew O'Hagan was dispatched to Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, where Assange is taking tweedy refuge [1].

Julian Assange, photo by Espen Moe

Julian Assange, Photo by Espen Moe [2]

But according to his publisher [3], Assange instructed Canongate to cancel the contract in June. The publisher says Assange won't return the advance – already used to pay his legal fees – so it is going ahead despite his objections.

The publisher is making the most of Assange's protestations, titling the tome "Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography".

All publicity is good publicity, as they say.

The Independent, one of the few newspapers left that hasn't had a formal leaky relationship with Assange, gets sloppy seconds. According to the Indie, which is serialising the book from tomorrow, we can look forward to "a vivid portrait of a driven but notoriously mercurial idealist bent on moulding the world in his own belief of absolute transparency".

The Indie says Canongate "beat off competitors" to sign up Assange – so it must have been keen. Canongate says it will honour royalty payments to the six-fingered Australian [4].

We can't wait.

More from the Independent here [5]. ®