PEEL APPEAL

John Peel: splendid DJ who helped launch many bands. I always thought of Peel as essentially British so I was surprised (envious maybe) that Transworld offered a reported £1.6m advance for his autobiography in 2003.

The family of Peel, who died in October 2004, has agreed to go ahead with publication and provide material from his archives collected over many years listening, watching and promoting bands known and little-known.

The risk is Transworld’s. I await the book with interest (and thanks for those festive 50s all those years ago, John).

As for the sums, I am no expert but would hazard a guess that to recoup £1.6m the backers would be praying for Da Vinci-style success.

Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code sold 1.36 million paperback copies in Britain in the nine months from March-December 11th 2004. Random House published Da Vinci. Transworld is under the Random House roof. Somewhere some sums may just be adding up.