Satirist risks Dawkins’s wrath with his creation | The Sunday Times

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Satirist risks Dawkins’s wrath with his creation

Kevin Dowling Published: 27 September 2015

A firm is to publish a satire on Richard Dawkins by Dan Rhodes, after the writer published 400 copies himself as a test and the evolutionary biologist did not sue A firm is to publish a satire on Richard Dawkins by Dan Rhodes, after the writer published 400 copies himself as a test and the evolutionary biologist did not sue (Dwayne Senior)

AN AWARD-WINNING novelist will finally see his “fictional” satire about a cantankerous evolutionary biologist called Richard Dawkins published in paperback this week.

Dan Rhodes, who has won the EM Forster award for previous work, overcame publishers’ legal fears by self-publishing 400 copies of the book last year to rave reviews but no legal writs.

Successive publishers turned down the novel, which follows the travails of the zealous professor and his sidekick after they become trapped in a snowstorm and have to take refuge with a retired vicar and his wife.

“Publishers were running to the hills at the very mention of the idea,” said Rhodes. “They wouldn’t do it without Dawkins agreeing to it.

“I grew up with Spitting Image, and I’m pretty sure its producers didn’t have to ask for the permission of those who they were lampooning.”

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