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Unimportant auction

29.02.08

Hodder & Stoughton has won a seven-publisher auction for a "harrowing but humorous" World War One diary. Written by British army officer Captain Alexander Stewart, a Military Cross winner who fought at the Somme and Passchendaele, the diaries were discovered by his grandson, Jamie Cameron Stewart.

Last November, Cameron Stewart published the diaries in e-book format on a dedicated website under the title A Very Unimportant Officer, and sold almost 2,000 downloads.

Rupert Lancaster at Hodder bought world English rights for the book from agent Robert Smith. He said: "The military market is very challenging right now, but this is a very different take on the war. There is some of the old stiff upper lip, but you really get the sense that these people were human beings."

Hodder is rushing the book out for publication in late June, in time for the 1st July anniversary of the Somme.

Rights deal Hodder Alexander Stewart Robert Smith

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