Prophet novel set for scrap amid fears

LONDON: The controversial ‘Mohammed’ novel The Jewel of Medina may not be published in Britain after the firebombing of its publisher’s London home. Author Sherry Jones had called on the British public to ensure that her book is published here, but Mandrake learns that the publication of The Jewel of Medina in this country has been postponed indefinitely. The book concerns one of the prophet Mohammed’s wives.

Alan Jessop, the managing director of Compass, the external sales team of Jones’s publisher Gibson Square, says the publication is now in “suspended animation” after the attack on publisher Martin Rynja’s house in London. “He is in good spirits, but he is reflecting and taking advice on what the best way forward is,” says Jessop. “Everyone is going to have to be patient. This requires some careful thinking.”

The historical novel, in which Jones tells a fictionalised version of the life of Aisha, one of Mohammed’s wives, was due out in Britain on Oct 15. Its American publisher, Beaufort Books, said it intends to publish on that day.

Gibson Square’s London office remains closed. Jessop says Rynja will be talking to security forces, whose intelligence alerted them to the attack before it took place, and “people who might have an interest in the content of the book”