Margaret Atwood
(Picture: Dave Benett)A MYSTERY thief who hoodwinked much of the literary world for at least five years appears to have been caught and unmasked, police say.
The FBI arrested Filippo Bernardini at JFK international airport yesterday, charging him with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
They alleged that Bernardini, who works for Simon and Schuster UK in London, “impersonated, defrauded, and attempted to defraud, hundreds of individuals”.
Bernardini is alleged to have used cleverly faked domain names — such as penguinrandornhouse.com, with an ‘r’ and ‘n’ replacing the ‘m’ of Penguin RandomHouse — to impersonate agents and editors and trick authors into sending over manuscripts. None of the stolen works appeared online and no ransom was ever demanded, leading the culprit to be dubbed The Spine Collector. Margaret Atwood, Sally Rooney and actor Ethan Hawke were among those targeted.
Simon and Schuster said in a statement they were “shocked and horrified” by the claims. They have suspended Bernardini until there is further information.
Tough-guy Kiefer’s so full of love now
KIEFER SUTHERLAND is famous for playing hardman Jack Bauer in over-the-top American TV show 24, but now that he’s concentrating on a career as a singer-songwriter, Sutherland is getting in touch with his more sensitive side — in a way. The Paddington-born star, whose new album Bloor Street is out later this month, says: “If you’d told me two years ago I’d write a song called So Full Of Love, I’d have punched you.” Not the most natural impulse for your average singer-songwriter.
Author saved from screen of doom
ADELE PARKS was 80,000 words into her novel at the start of the pandemic when a virus hit her computer and the screen went black. The author, who has just been awarded an MBE for her services to literature, lost every single folder from the past 15 years, including her new book, Both of You. “It was devastating,” Parks cringed to a Harper Collins event last night. Thankfully the HarperCollins tech team stepped in: “I dedicate the book to Abdu Mohammad Ali… that brilliant genius man.” A close shave.
SW1A
BREXIT is a little passé these days in SW1, but veteran FT writer Martin Wolf is sure of one thing. “If Brexit has done nothing else, it has convinced the EU of the unbelievable importance of sticking together,” he told an Intelligence Squared event last night. Words that may fall on deaf ears.
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TORY MP Liam Fox says politics should stop acting like an X Factor contest as conversations about the future of Boris Johnson’s position swirl. As the pandemic has eclipsed the Government’s agenda, Fox writes on ConHome: “We should defer judgment”. Presumably not to Simon Cowell.
