‘A terrifying precedent’: author describes struggle to publish British army history

Simon Akam says Penguin Random House cancelled his book about the British army, The Changing of the Guard, and demanded back his advance after he refused to let the MoD vet it

In the summer of 2015, journalist Simon Akam was thrilled when Penguin Random House (PRH) imprint William Heinemann won a five-way auction to publish his book, The Changing of the Guard. It promised to be an “explosive, intimate, authoritative account of the British army”, with PRH likening Akam to George Orwell, Ernest Hemingway and Michael Herr.

Six years later, The Changing of the Guard was published – but not by PRH. It was released this February by independent press Scribe, after an extraordinary dispute between PRH and Akam resulted in the publisher dropping the book, spending a year chasing Akam for tens of thousands of pounds, and accusing him of not meeting “the standards of balance and accuracy expected of responsible publishers, authors and journalists”.

Related: The Changing of the Guard by Simon Akam review – the truth about the British army

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