The lawyer who told the world that Harry Potter novelist J.K. Rowling was really Robert Galbraith, the writer of the crime novel The Cuckoo’s Calling, has received a fine and a citation for his slip-up.
Rowling was forced to admit that she wrote Cuckoo’s Calling in July after the Sunday Times found out. While that lead to a spike in sales for the book, Rowling was not pleased, since she wanted to see if her writing would do as well without people knowing that it was the work of the Harry Potter creator.
Eventually, it was revealed that the Sunday Times found out about the true writer of the book through a mysterious tweet, which was sent by a user linked to Chris Gossage at the British law firm Russells Solicitors. Gossage told a friend, who then told his wife and she sent the tweet. The law firm did apologize and Rowling reached a settlement with the firm.
However, the Solicitors Regulation Authority ruled this week that Gossage will have to pay a fine of 1,000 pounds ($1,650) and also received a written warning, reports Reuters. Russells has not responded to the lawyer watchdog group’s ruling.
Galbraith was advertized as a military police officer and critics noted that the book read like the work of a veteran writer. It turned out to be Rowling’s second adult novel, following The Casual Vacancy, which was published under her name.
image: Amazon