Cover Stories

BACK IN June, this column revealed that James Hewitt, former lover of Princess Diana, was at work on a memoir. Finally, in the wake of this week's tabloid furore comes news that he will burst into print on 1 November, when Blake Publishing issues Love and War. A quote from Diana appears on the cover, cut short at the point where she told Panorama viewers, in polite terms, that Hewitt was a shit. Blake, run by former Sun reporter John Blake, will publish the book worldwide in English. "He's done nothing wrong - he simply fell in love with the wrong woman," Blake offers by way of explanation. But surely officers, if they are gentlemen, don't kiss and tell?

BACK IN June, this column revealed that James Hewitt, former lover of Princess Diana, was at work on a memoir. Finally, in the wake of this week's tabloid furore comes news that he will burst into print on 1 November, when Blake Publishing issues Love and War. A quote from Diana appears on the cover, cut short at the point where she told Panorama viewers, in polite terms, that Hewitt was a shit. Blake, run by former Sun reporter John Blake, will publish the book worldwide in English. "He's done nothing wrong - he simply fell in love with the wrong woman," Blake offers by way of explanation. But surely officers, if they are gentlemen, don't kiss and tell?

IT'S ALMOST two years since Arundhati Roy won the Booker with The God of Small Things. At the time, she said she might never write another novel. Now HarperCollins is to publish a new Roy non-fiction opus. The Cost of Living is a denunciation of the Narmada Valley dam project, which she claims displaces millions for questionable gain. In India, the essay earned Roy a rebuke from the Supreme Court. The book also includes her polemic against India's atomic weapons programme. As to that second novel, Roy is now considering "something to do with nuclear power".

BOOKSHOP SHELVES are groaning under the weight of cookbooks, all offering recipes far too complicated for most of us. So Cannabis for Lunch by "Eric" comes as a breath of fresh air. At £6.99, it promises "recipes for recreational and therapeutic use". Cannabis being a banned substance, the book is available from a PO Box in Dorchester or via the net at www.peaceful-day.freeserve.co.uk/erics/.

THRILLER VETERAN Jack Higgins has signed a four-book deal with HarperCollins, which published his The Eagle has Landed a quarter-century ago. The contract, rumoured at £1m, provides the Murdoch company with another author well past their sell-by date, along with Barbara Taylor Bradford and Jeffrey Archer.