Why Connery and Canongate failed to bond

Published on Saturday 5 July 2008 19:54

WHEN the most famous living Scot teamed up with the country's most dynamic publisher it appeared to be a literary marriage made in heaven.

Sir Sean Connery agreed to work with Canongate to unleash his long-awaited memoirs on an expectant public.

But now Jamie Byng, who owns the Edinburgh-based publishers, has revealed that he walked away from the project because of irreconcilable differences over the content of the book.

Byng said that he, Connery and his co-author Murray Grigor, did not see "eye-to-eye" on the direction of the project and agreed to part.

The high-profile literary figure spoke out as the 007 star is preparing to launch his delayed tome, Being A Scot.

Connery is due to take to the stage to promote his book at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August.

Byng spent months working with the veteran actor and his friend Grigor on the book, but the collaboration proved to be unfruitful and was aborted. The finished book will now be published by Weidenfeld.

Byng said: "At the end of the day we did not see eye-to-eye on what this book could and should be. For that reason we didn't want to publish it and they (Connery and Grigor] didn't want us to publish it."

Byng had hoped the book would be the nearest thing to Connery's autobiography.

"We thought it could be a book that was absolutely personal, but it was a book about Scotland. There was some wonderful stuff and I hope that wonderful stuff will appear in the finished book.

"Sir Sean has got a great storytelling instinct and a great eye and ear for anecdotes. There was some beautiful Angela's Ashes type stuff about growing up in Edinburgh.

"But ultimately we couldn't agree on what the book should be and how we could move it on."

The book was due to be published jointly by Canongate and Polygon.

Hugh Andrew, chief executive of the Birlinn/Polygon group, which is also based in Edinburgh, painted a similar picture.

He said: "We had a difference of opinion (with Connery and Grigor] as to the editorial direction of the book.

"Sadly, these things happen. There were no shouting matches or anything like that. The paths we wanted to go on were different and that was it."

One publishing insider, who has seen an early draft of the book, said it focused on aspects of Scottish culture rather than on Connery's anecdotes.

She said: "In my opinion, it seemed from the early drafts this was Murray's book rather than Sean's.

"I think it should have been more autobiographical, rather than this kind of scotching-the-myth-type book.

"It could have been the closest we got to Sean's autobiography. Sean as a storyteller is really, really good. It could have been a great book and it is a great shame."

The book's story is a saga in itself. In 2003 Connery withdrew from an agreement with Scottish writer Meg Henderson to pen his memoirs.

The two fell out, allegedly because she wished to delve too deeply into his private life.

Subsequently, an arrangement with the writer Hunter Davies came to nothing, again supposedly because the former Beatles biographer favoured a 'warts and all' approach.

A spokesman for Weidenfeld said Connery "offers a correction to misconceptions that many believe are part of the historical record whilst revealing, as never before, his own vibrant personal history".

It is described as a "vivid and highly personal portrait of Scotland and its achievements" and reflects the actor's desire to "shine light upon Scottish success and heroic failure".

In the book Connery and Grigor examine Scotland's contribution to sports, the gothic aspects of Scots literature, the roots of the nation's "unreal blend of psychotic humour" and the origins of the "Scottish cringe".

The book's publishers stress it is definitely not a book of "titillating revelations" about the women in his life.

Grigor, an acclaimed film-maker, has always insisted it is Connery's book. Earlier this year he said: "The book really reflects the life and film achievement of this extraordinary man. It reflects topics of Scottish culture, high and low."

According to a sneak preview on the publisher's website, Being A Scot features the introductory lines: "My first big break came when I was five years old. It's taken me more than seventy years to realise that. You see, at five I first learnt to read. It's that simple and profound.

"I didn't have a formal education. It's been a long return journey from my two-room Fountainbridge home in the smoky industrial end of Edinburgh opposite the McCowans toffee factory."

A spokeswoman for the Edinburgh International Book Festival described the book as "a rather remarkable document".

Grigor was unavailable for comment.