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Insure your book for £5m...in case it injures someone
Last updated at 00:07am on 24.02.07An author has been told his book honouring First World War soldiers cannot be stocked by his local council unless he takes out insurance worth £5million.
Officials said Mark Sutton needed the accident cover in case the public injured themselves on his book - for example, if it fell on their foot or they got paper cuts.
The book has now been withdrawn from the Tourist Information Centre in Swindon until Mr Sutton stumps up the £150 insurance premium.
But he is refusing to pay, saying it goes against everything the soldiers whose bravery he details in his book stood for.
The 41-year-old, who has sold 1,000 copies of the £12.99 book since it went on sale last October, said: "It's crazy. I refuse to get the insurance.
"It's just another one of these silly Health and Safety measures and it has gone potty. You couldn't make it up."
Mr Sutton, of Swindon, added: "It's ridiculous. I didn't write the book for money - it's for the memory of the men who died and gave everything for us.
"I wonder what they would think if they were here to see their names couldn't be preserved just because people want to be greedy."
Mr Sutton spent three years researching the 300-page book, Tell Them Of Us, which is available in a number of outlets and also through Internet bookstores.
But Swindon Borough Council said he must take out public liability insurance to continue selling it at the town's Tourist Information Centre.
Officials claim regulations require all providers of any council services to have valid insurance, or the authority could be found liable and sued if an accident occurs.
Council spokesman Richard Freeman said the insurance was to protect against potential legal claims caused by defective products.
He acknowledged that the risk of injury was small in Mr Sutton's case, but said it was standard insurance industry practice, and all council suppliers must have cover from April 1.
"The problem here is not with the council but with a society that is becoming obsessed with litigation," Mr Freeman said.
"We have to cover for every eventuality - even if that is an accident caused by pages falling out of the book. Nobody is denying its a very small risk, but the risk is there."
He added that the council had now agreed to drop the level of cover for Mr Sutton down to £2 million.
Mr Freeman said: "The cover we require is normally for £5million but we are prepared to reduce this to £2million for smaller suppliers including Mr Sutton.
"The high number of claims made against organisations these days means no one offering any products or services for sale can afford to be without public liability insurance.
"Premiums are usually based on turnover and the level of risk, and can be as little as £150."
Reader views (10)
As a fellow published writer who has run across this manner of idiocy before, I think I can help: Mr. Sutton, have you considered the online book format? For all its perils, the internet cannot be dropped upon one's foot or employed to lacerate one's fingers. More and more authors are moving to this format and bypassing entirely the various nickel-and-dime schemes devised to tax authors trying to sell their works.
- Tom Czerniawski, Toronto, Canada
You got your pin head idiots too, I see!
- Roland, San Antonio, TX, USA
Unbelieveable!
Just when you thought things couldn't get any stupider...
- Ka, Virginia, USA
Total lunacy. If someone had made up this story, no one would have believed it. Are the libraries now slowly to be emptied as authors refuse to pay this assinine insurance premium?
- Phil Jones, London
Someone tell me why this isn't the responsibility of the establishment selling the books in the first place to insure against this kind of thing? That makes absolutely no sense to me at all- it's the responsibility of the store selling the book to make sure that it is properly stacked, etc, to KEEP it falling and hurting someone- the book writer has nothing to do with it. I don't think anyone seriously expects JK Rowling to take out an insurance policy for every bookstore her stuff gets sold in...and what about used bookstores? The chain of common sense is broken here.
- Jesi, Jefferson Hills, PA
I can not think of any words that could adequately explain how stupid this makes the council look.
Has there EVER been a SINGLE case of a book seller being sued for an injury caused by a book?
I cannot find ANY...
- Roger M., Chicago, IL USA
I see that common sense is becoming a rarer and rarer commodity the world over.
Utterly silly that someone needs to insure a book against such money due to paper-cuts of all things.
- Bentor Tazenda, Seattle, Washington
And here I thought my own country had gone off the deep end. As crazy as our lawyers and our government (mostly lawyers) are, they're not THIS crazy. We have all our plastic bags labeled "this bag is not a toy" (because, y'know, otherwise people might mistake it for a doll or a truck or something) but we don't require millions of dollars, pounds, euros, or anything else worth of liability insurance to sell a book. I'd be very curious if that council has a "preferred" insurance provider, and if so where there's any connection between that firm and the people insisting on the insurance.
- Jean, Manchester, NH, USA
This is extortion, plain and simple!
- Craig Bomberger, Chanute, Kansas USA
The English have gone barking mad.
- C, Cuffley, UK.
