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Diary

Robert Harris’s diary: My accidental war with Tony Blair

Plus: Churchillian French, Alfred Dreyfus and Roman Polanski

14 June 2014

8:00 AM

14 June 2014

8:00 AM

To Paris, for the launch of the French edition of my novel about the Dreyfus affair. As we land, I isolate three anxieties out of my general sense of unease. First is the natural nervousness of any Englishman contemplating telling the French anything about their own country. Second is the French law which allows the descendants of actual historical figures — of whom there are dozens in my novel — to sue for defamation: the heirs of the Marquis de Sade even objected to an unflattering portrayal of the inventor of sadism.

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Robert Harris’s bestselling novels include Fatherland, The Ghost and An Officer and a Spy, just out in paperback. He’s also a former political editor of the Observer.

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