Author defends 'scrap CDs' demand

Author Lynley Hood continued to insist yesterday that thousands of CD-Roms containing incorrect biographical information about her should be destroyed.

But she rejected claims that she had threatened to take legal action against Creative New Zealand, which is responsible for the error.

Hood last week wrote to the Government agency asking for the 2000 CDs about New Zealand writers - which wrongly stated her doctorate from the University of Otago was honorary rather than an examined degree - to be destroyed and new versions made and redistributed.

As a result, Creative NZ destroyed hundreds of CD-Roms and asked writers who had received them to destroy their copies.

But Hood's request has come under fire from fellow authors who in a Sunday newspaper were quoted as calling the author of A City Possessed - an analysis of the Christchurch civic creche child abuse case - paranoid and vain.

Hood, however, said the incorrect information could seriously damage her reputation.

The CDs were to be used to promote New Zealand literature overseas, particularly at the London Book Fair this month.

"Those CDs are going to be around for a long time and not only does the mistake take away my qualification, it's made it into a liability.

"If you've got an honorary doctorate and use the title, you're a joke. I can't afford for that to happen," she said.

- NZPA