Independent : DJ's brother attacks 'unseemly' rush of Peel biographies

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DJ's brother attacks 'unseemly' rush of Peel biographies
By Terry Kirby, Chief Reporter

06 December 2004


Less than six weeks after his death, two books about John Peel, the DJ and broadcasting icon, were in the shops - just in time for the Christmas market. Now his younger brother has launched an attack on the unseemly haste of the publishers who rushed out the works to cash in on the DJ's popularity.

Francis Ravenscroft, 63, who lives in Crowborough, East Sussex, said he believed the publication of both books was disgusting. He said: "The whole thing is fairly unseemly. It is really just ambulance-chasing."

The books, however, have been selling well. The first biography, John Peel: A Tribute to the Hugely Popular DJ and Broadcaster, was published by Orion last month and was written by rock journalist Mick Wall, who worked with him at Radio 1 and Sounds magazine.

The second book called John Peel: A Life in Music, has been written by Michael Heatley and published by Michael O'Mara Books. Heatley is another rock journalist, who has edited the Virgin Encyclopedia of Rock and has written biographies of Elton John and Justin Timberlake, among others.

Mr Ravenscroft admitted he had bought Wall's book, but said: "I have just finished reading the first chapter and I am not at all impressed by what I have read so far. Even in the first chapter there are an awful lot of inaccurate and salacious things, which I find rather offensive. It has obviously been written by someone who did not know John. I shall be much more interested in reading what my brother says in his own biography, even if it is foreshortened."

A spokesman for Orion, defended its book by describing it as an "affectionate tribute". He said: "When someone dies, that's when you reflect on their life. The extraordinary response to John Peel's death and the huge amount of media coverage showed in how much affection and respect he was held, and how much people want to read more about him."

Michael O'Mara Books said in a statement: "Should we be ashamed of publishing the book so quickly? No more than the TV companies that have already shown documentaries or the newspapers and magazines that printed special features."

Transworld, due to publish Peel's autobiography next year, said it was "saddened" by the unauthorised books.

Last week, Peel's widow Sheila and their four children said that they would attempt to finish the DJ's only partly-completed autobiography with more biographical material and personal memories.

Peel, 65, who lived near Stowmarket in Suffolk, died from a heart attack while on holiday in Peru in October. He had received a sizeable advance for his autobiography, but he had only written only about 50,000 words - and, say friends, had just reached his time as an American DJ in the early 1960s at the height of Beatlemania.

In a statement last week, Mrs Peel revealed that she had "thought long and hard" about completing the official autobiography for her late husband.

She said: "This book was very important to him, and he was very excited about writing it. We decided it would have been a terrible waste to have let all of his work so far go unpublished and feel he would have wished us to complete it."

A major publisher is considering an anthology of his journalism. Peel wrote for dozens of publications, from Record Mirror to the Radio Times, over almost four decades. 
	 	

8 December 2004 13:48

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