Towering above the crush at the Books for Giving bash at the RAC on Pall
Mall last week, was Ed Victor, literary agent par excellence.
Victor was in a particularly good mood having recently sold the rights
to Nick Leeson’s autobiography - Rogue Trader - to Little Brown for a
sum in excess of pounds 400,000.
The book has already created more publicity than Martin Amis’ dental
work but, as Victor told me, it has all got a bit out of hand. With
Leeson’s trial still to come, it is unlikely the book will hit the
shelves for some time, and both agent and publisher seem worried about
peaking too soon.
Not, apparently, something which is uppermost in the mind of Leeson’s
wife, Lisa, who is practically having to be dragged away from the TV
cameras these days.
‘You know Lisa went on Kilroy and I had to say to her, please don’t do
that again,’ confides Victor.
As for PR’s prodigal son, Max Clifford, Victor denies he was ever
involved in advising Leeson despite the claims of various tabloid hacks.
‘Clifford said he had been hoaxed. Somebody called him up pretending to
be Leeson,’ explained Victor.
Then again, it sounds like Lisa is doing fine on her own.
