Bath lands Wallis' account of Depp v Heard trial

Bath Publishing has snapped up journalist Nick Wallis’ "explosive" account of the Depp vs Heard trial.

David Chaplin acquired world rights to Depp v Heard: The Unreal Story directly from the author, who reported on the case. It will publish in 2023. 

In 2020 Hollywood actor Johnny Depp sued the owners of the Sun newspaper at the High Court in London for calling him a “wife-beater”. His ex-wife, fellow actor Amber Heard, was called as a witness, and Depp lost the case. In April this year, Depp sued Heard for defamation in the US, for claiming, via the Washington Post, that she was a victim of domestic violence. This time, with both the jury and in the court of public opinion supporting him, Depp won.

"After two exhaustive trials, how did the outcomes differ so widely," the synopsis questions. "And which verdict, if any, contains the truth?"

The book, it continues, "dives headlong into a saga that transfixed millions of people. In the engaging, page-turning style of his first bestselling book—The Great Post Office Scandal (Bath Publishing)—Nick sets up the legal drama, weaves his own reportage through the story and provides definitive analysis of the undisputed factual evidence to uncover the real truth behind Depp v Heard."

"I am so pleased to have secured a second book deal with Bath Publishing," Wallis said. "The Great Post Office Scandal demonstrated Bath’s ability to promote and sell a mainstream title which nonetheless sits comfortably within its heritage as a legal publisher. Depp v Heard: The Unreal Story goes a step further—into a wilder madness played out on a global stage, framed and shaped by two very different legal systems and the online badlands of social media."

Chaplin added: "It is such an opportunity for a small publisher like us to work with Nick on another book tackling an explosive subject which has become embedded in the public consciousness. Nick will recount the story in his customary evenhanded way, cutting through the one-eyed passions of social media, to provide a timeless account of what really did happen in and around the court."