David Lassman is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 author, arts journalist and scriptwriter responsible for the 'Rejecting Jane

Rejecting Jane

"Rejecting Jane" is the title of an article by British author David Lassman, which became the 'literary story of 2007' The article, which was published in Issue 28 of Jane Austen's Regency World magazine., is a critique of the publishing industry through their inadvertent rejection of Jane Austen...

' article, which became the 'literary story of 2007'.

Biography

Born in Bath, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, Lassman was educated at Beechen Cliff School

Beechen Cliff School

Beechen Cliff School is a boys' secondary school in Bath, Somerset, England. Founded in 1896, it has 1,145 students aged 11 to 18.There are around 830 boys in years 7 to 11 and a co-educational sixth form of over 200 students...

, Bath (1974–1980).

He began his writing career as a columnist and arts reviewer for local and regional newspapers including the Bath Chronicle

Bath Chronicle

The Bath Chronicle is a weekly newspaper, first published under various titles before 1760 in Bath, England. Prior to September 2007, it was published daily.-Name changes:...

, Bournemouth Daily Echo

Bournemouth Daily Echo

The Bournemouth Daily Echo, commonly known as the Daily Echo, is a local newspaper that covers the area of south-east Dorset, England, including the towns of Poole, Bournemouth, Christchurch...

 and Big Issue South West. After graduating from Bournemouth University

Bournemouth University

Bournemouth University is a university in and around the large south coast town of Bournemouth, UK...

's prestigious Media School, with a BA (Hons) degree in Scriptwriting for Film and Television, he began writing for the screen and making regular appearances on radio and television. One of the first fruits of this new direction was on Radio Four’s 'First Person Plural' alongside Simon Nye

Simon Nye

Simon Nye is an English comic television writer, best known for creating the hit sitcom Men Behaving Badly, writing all of the four ITV Panto, co-writing the 2006 film Flushed Away, co-writing Reggie Perrin and creating the latest adaption of William Brown in the Just William CBBC...

 and Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather

Birds of a Feather was a British sitcom that was broadcast on BBC1 from 1989 until 1998. Starring Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph, it was created by Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, who also wrote some of the episodes along with many other writers.The first episode sees sisters...

 writer Sue Teddern.

Although a frequent visitor to Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

, in January 2003 he moved permanently to the island of Symi

Symi

Symi also transliterated Syme or Simi is a Greek island and municipality. It is mountainous and includes the harbor town of Symi and its adjacent upper town Ano Symi, as well as several smaller localities, beaches, and areas of significance in history and mythology...

 where he began writing the novel Freedom’s Temple, which is a modern take on the story of the Theseus and the Minotaur

Theseus and the Minotaur

Theseus and the Minotaur is a type of logic maze designed by Robert Abbott. In this maze, the player acts as Theseus, the legendary king of Athens who is attempting to escape the Labyrinth. The main difference between this and the standard type of maze, beyond the fact that it's set on a grid, is...

 myth. While on the island he also wrote several shorter pieces of fiction which were published in English language newspapers and Greek periodicals, including his best known short story 'The Painting' – a semi-mystical love story set on Symi.

Rejecting Jane

The initial negative response to Freedom's Temple, received after his return to the UK in July 2006, contributed to his writing the article 'Rejecting Jane’, a critique of the publishing industry through their inadvertent rejection of Jane Austen

Jane Austen

Jane Austen was an English novelist whose works of romantic fiction, set among the landed gentry, earned her a place as one of the most widely read writers in English literature, her realism and biting social commentary cementing her historical importance among scholars and critics.Austen lived...

. Using the pseudonym ‘Alison Laydee’, - a play on Austen’s original non de plume A Lady - Lassman sent out the opening chapters of Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice is a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England...

, Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey was the first of Jane Austen's novels to be completed for publication, though she had previously made a start on Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. According to Cassandra Austen's Memorandum, Susan was written approximately during 1798–99...

 and Persuasion

Persuasion

Persuasion is a form of social influence. It is the process of guiding or bringing oneself or another toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action by rational and symbolic means.- Methods :...

 to several major publishers and literary agents, with different titles but only minor changes to the text, such as character names and locations. The resultant article chronicles the fact that all but one of the publishers and agents failed to recognise her works, including Penguin Books

Penguin Books

Penguin Books is a publisher founded in 1935 by Sir Allen Lane and V.K. Krishna Menon. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s through its high quality, inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other high street stores for sixpence. Penguin's success demonstrated that large...

 and JK Rowling’s publisher Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury

-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...

, with the vast majority rejecting out of hand this apparent attempt by one of the world’s greatest known authors to gain a publishing deal. This despite the fact that one the most famous opening lines in English literature, that of Pride and Prejudice’s ‘It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife’ was left intact.

When the ‘Rejecting Jane’ article was published in Issue 28 of the Jane Austen's Regency World magazine its contents made global headlines and Lassman appeared on radio and television programmes worldwide, including American news programmes and TV talk shows such as Good Morning America

Good Morning America

Good Morning America is an American morning news and talk show that is broadcast on the ABC television network; it debuted on November 3, 1975. The weekday program airs for two hours; a third hour aired between 2007 and 2008 exclusively on ABC News Now...

.

Crazy About Jane

The ‘Rejecting Jane’ article and its author are subjects of the 2008 documentary ‘Crazy About Jane’, which received its world premiere at the 8th International Jane Austen Festival in Bath. Lassman unwittingly received further media attention after quotes he made during the promotion of the documentary sparked controversy within the Jane Austen tourist industry.

Acting career

Lassman has made sporadic acting appearances and has shared scenes with the likes of Timothy Spall

Timothy Spall

Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...

, Jeremy Northam

Jeremy Northam

Jeremy Philip Northam is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Ivor Novello in the 2001 film Gosford Park, as Dean Martin in the 2002 television movie Martin and Lewis, and as Thomas More on the Showtime series The Tudors...

 and Clive Swift

Clive Swift

Clive Walter Swift is an English character comedy actor and songwriter. He is best known for his role as character Richard Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances. He is less known for his role as character Roy in the British television series The Old Guys...

 in the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's 1988 production of Journey's End

Journey's End

Journey's End is a 1928 drama, the seventh of English playwright R. C. Sherriff. It was first performed at the Apollo Theatre in London by the Incorporated Stage Society on 9 December 1928, starring a young Laurence Olivier, and soon moved to other West End theatres for a two-year run...

 and Ronnie Wood, Ian Dury

Ian Dury

Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...

 and Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 in Hearts of Fire

Hearts of Fire

Hearts of Fire is a 1987 American musical drama film starring Bob Dylan, Fiona Flanagan and Rupert Everett. The film was essentially a vehicle for Dylan based on his success as a rock musician...

. He is also set to appear in the movie adaptation of his novel Freedom’s Temple.

Present day

He is currently developing a television drama series set in Regency England along with award-winning editor and screenwriter Terence James, with whom he runs the LassmanJames Script Consultancy.

At present Lassman lives in Bath where he co-runs the Bath Writers' Workshop  with Kevan Manwaring and is a director and co-founder of the Bath Screen Academy.

Selected Journalism

• ‘Spotlight on Eddie Cochran’. Rockin 50s magazine. Issue 12. June 1988. pages 10–16.
• ‘Sugar or spice’ (HTV’s Final Cut competition) Rock Scene, Bath Advertiser. Jan 24, 1990.
• ‘A tough tussle’ (Moles’ Battle of the bands). Rock Scene, Bath Advertiser. May 11, 1990
• ‘Out of the tiles’ (Moles club, Bath) Bath Chronicle. June 8, 1994
• ‘More thrilling than a no-score draw’ (Ashton Court Festival, Bristol). Bath Chronicle. July 22, 1994
• ‘Dressing to funk’ (Karanga, Bath). Bath Chronicle. August 10, 1994
• ‘Is the island sinking?’ (The Island Club, Bath). Bath Chronicle. August 31, 1994
• ‘King of Glastonbury’ (Michael Eavis in-depth interview) Big Issue South West. 1994
• ‘Nowt Taken Out’ (Brian Glover in-depth interview) Big Issue South West. 1994
• ‘Satisfying and bold’ (Images of Dance review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. July 3, 1997.
• ‘Weller still vital after two decades’ (Paul Weller review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Dec 1, 1997.
• ‘One song over and over? But what a song!’ (Status Quo review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Dec 4, 1997.
• ‘Dance v Dylan’ (Rambert Dance Company review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Oct 4, 1997.
• ‘Return of the now famous’ (Ocean Colour Scene review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Feb 3, 1998.
• ‘Passion and death, with a translation’ (Carmen: The Moldovan National Opera) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Feb 14, 1998.
• ‘Responding with rapture’ (Norma: Moldovan National Opera) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Feb 17, 1998.
• ‘Standing ovation for top comedy star Lee’ (Lee Evans review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Apr 7, 1998.
• ‘That’s one way to please fans’ (The Levellers review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Dec 16, 1998.
• ‘Comedy of a surreal kind’ (Harry Hill review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Dec 18, 1999.
• 'Fans loyal to Barlow at musical crossroads’ (Gary Barlow review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Dec 23, 1999.
• ‘William Barnes’. The Talbot. Magazine of Bournemouth University Alumni. Summer 2000. pgs 20-21.
• ‘Fatalism is never far away’ (Thomas Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. Apr 4, 2001.
• ‘Bard’s tale a top blend’ (Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. May 31, 2001.
• ‘At the heart of the performance’ (Elkie Brooks review) Bournemouth Daily Echo. July 25, 2001.
• ‘Rejecting Jane’. Jane Austen’s Regency World. Issue No. 28. July/August 2007. pgs 6-10.

Selected fiction

• Short stories
• ‘A Glorious Day’ (2003)
• ‘The Painting’ (2003)
• ‘The Cursed Screenplay’ (2008)
• Novels
• ‘Freedom’s Temple’ (2007)

External links

• Crazy About Jane at Amazon.com
  Amazon.com
  Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
  
  
• David Lassman's official website
• Bath Writers' Workshop website