Former Times fashion writer, Emily Davies, has been dropped by her US publisher following accusations of plagiarism.
According to UPI, Scribner Publishing who paid Davies a reported $900,000 advance for her memoirs, How to Wear Black – Adventures from fashion’s front line, pulled out of the deal after accusations were made that the proposal for the book was plagiarised.
Suzanne Balaban, vice president of public relations for Scribner told the New York Daily News: "We’ve dropped the book."
As reported in Press Gazette, the proposal for Davies book contained material taken from the New York Times journalist Monique Yazigi.
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Davies, who was dismissed by The Times last year following an invesitgation into alleged expenses irregularities, was also the subject of complaints by fellow journalists over some of her work.
In one instance Davies used extensive quotes by the fashion writer Susie Boyt without revealing that the copy was taken from Boyt’s column in the Financial Times. A complaint was made to The Times and Davies was asked to make a written apology.
Despite the news a spokeswoman for the book’s UK publisher, Random House, told Press Gazette that the company was standing by the statement they made last week which read:
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"We are now aware of the issue of the leaked proposal to the WWD and the allegations of lack of originality made against our author. It is important to note that this was an initial and indicative proposal for publishers only and not a section of the final manuscript.
Emily has stated that the incident was an honest error. We are investigating and discussing the matter with our author. At this stage we have no reason to doubt that the final manuscript for How to Wear Black will be wholly original."
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