It’s not just because I’m fiercely protective of my work that I have a copyright notice on my site. It’s also because if things like photos and text get used without permission, or in the wrong place, it can all get horribly expensive.

To cut a very long story short and remove the more gruesome details, a picture from this site found its way onto a page of today’s edition of a very well-selling national newspaper. The woman who downloaded it and passed it on, presumably in return for a fee, claimed to have an email from me authorising her to do so. Strange, then, that when I got hold of her mobile number and called it to request a copy of said email she screamed at me before I’d got out a full sentence and eventually slammed it down.

I tried again, but got more of the same. The only words I understood were ‘twenty thousand pounds’, which I believe is the sum she was threatening to sue me for.

Hmmm…

Strange how that is the amount that the very nice man on the paper’s photo desk said it could cost them to pull the paper’s second print last night, and that he’d threatened to pass the cost on to her. He promised to go down and pull out the picture, though, and, good as his word, when I bought a copy and checked it this morning there was no sign of the photo.

The whole affair has left a rather nasty taste in my mouth. I feel sorry for the woman who gave them the picture. She was obviously very upset on the phone, but then she is accusing me of doing something I have not done. I’m disappointed, too, that the paper didn’t check that they really were allowed to print it. It would have saved a lot of money, phone calls, and unpleasantness.

So, what now? Let it drop, or pursue the person who took the picture, which I have now removed from the site, complete with all references? I’m inclined to let it drop. I can’t see that chasing it will do any good and there are better things to do.

The sun is shining and I’ve moved up to Galleywood for a week. The garden is fantastic and the meadow at the back is full of wild flowers and long grass. Jess is bouncing around in it, stalking small animals from behind thistles and tall buttercups.

I received a nice email, too, from Jules, who set up the Lucas Tyler interview for Thursday evening’s show. She lives in Australia but that didn’t put her off sitting up until 4.45 in the morning, her time, to hear it on the webcast. I admire her stamina… and devotion.

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