''Empress Bianca'', the first novel by

Lady Colin Campbell Georgia Arianna, Lady Colin Campbell (''née'' Ziadie, born 17 August 1949), also known as Lady C, is a British Jamaican author, socialite, and television personality who has published seven books about the British royal family. They include ...

, was initially published in June 2005. One month later, Arcadia Books, the British publisher, withdrew the book and pulped all unsold copies in reaction to a legal threat initiated on behalf of

Lily Safra Lily Safra (née Watkins; also Cohen, Monteverde and Bendahan; 30 December 1934 – 9 July 2022) was a Brazilian-Monegasque billionaire and socialite who amassed considerable wealth through her four marriages. She had a significant art collectio ...

under her interpretation that the book was a defamatory

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship ...

. After some changes the book was republished in the United States in 2008 by Dynasty Press.

Plot

Bianca Barrett, the protagonist and daughter of a Welsh Surveyor and his Palestinian wife, becomes an "ambitious and mercenary" social climber and double murderess. Charming and well-educated, Bianca marries four times and advances in wealth and social influence. With Bernardo, her first husband, Bianca has three children; they lose their son in a car crash. After a divorce, she marries the rich Ferdie, whose family owns the Piedraplata commercial empire. Before it comes to a divorce, the second husband is shot and killed by a hitman who makes it look like a suicide. The killing is arranged by her lover, Phillipe Mahfud, and Bianca becomes the financial beneficiary. After a brief marriage to husband number three – she had married him only to make Mahfud jealous-, she lastly marries Mahfud, a rich Iraqi businessman and banker. When their relationship sours, the banker dies with his nurse in a mysterious fire in his apartment in the tax haven of

Andorra , image_flag = Flag of Andorra.svg , image_coat = Coat of arms of Andorra.svg , symbol_type = Coat of arms , national_motto = la, Virtus Unita Fortior, label=none (Latin)"United virtue is stro ...

. Bianca's lawyers pay off the police and investigators, and the only justice that remains is in the court of public opinion.

Pulping of first edition

In July 2005, Lily Safra claimed that her life had been "stolen" by the book and had her lawyer, Anthony Julius, demand that the publisher should recall the book and destroy unsold copies. Julius' letter indicated that Safra "regarded the book as defamatory". As

English defamation law Modern libel and slander laws in many countries are originally descended from English defamation law. The history of defamation law in England is somewhat obscure; civil actions for damages seem to have been relatively frequent as far back as t ...

puts the burden of proof on the defendant, Arcadia Books complied, indicating that they were too small a company to fight the looming legal battle. The author, however, denied that she had used Safra's life as a template and claimed that it was based on characters of her own family, including her cousin Blanche, a double murderess. A countersuit ensued with Lady Colin Campbell demanding compensation for lost income. She did not prevail. A rewritten, American edition of the novel was published in 2008 after the 17 specific issues that had been seen as pointing to Safra were addressed. With changes described as minor, but legally important – for instance, Barret now grows up in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

(not

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

), her mother is Palestinian (Arab, not Jewish), and her last husband Iraqi (not Lebanese) – this edition still preserved story, plot, incidents, and dialogue elements.

References

{{Authority control 2005 British novels Adultery in novels British crime novels English defamation law English novels Novels set in Andorra Recalled publications 2005 debut novels