By STEVE BOGGAN
LONDON - Sir William Golding sent Lord of the Flies to 15 publishers before one took it on board. Frederick Forsyth sent The Day of the Jackal to at least a dozen before it was accepted. So it would be a fool who would write off Brett De La Mare.
Mr De La Mare crashed on to the literary scene yesterday, not as a new man of letters but as the latest crank to make a point by breaking into Buckingham Palace.
The 36-year-old Australian author was frustrated because no publisher would touch his "Tarantino-style" thriller Canine Dawn, so he flew his paraglider over London, pursued by a police helicopter, and landed in the palace forecourt.
Armed police were waiting for him. Mr De La Mare was "robustly" arrested, said one officer. He may face charges under the Air Navigation Act.
On his website he says he left Australia and tried New York and London "only to discover that no publisher wants to talk to you unless you have an agent and no agent wants to know you unless you've been published.
"It's the stereotypical Catch-22. No wonder there are so many crap books out there, they won't let any new blood in. But not everyone slammed a door in my face. Some wouldn't even open it to do that much."
Mr De La Mare says he until his book is published he is "prepared to do whatever craziness it takes."
In 1982, Michael Fagan broke in to Buckingham Palace and sat on the Queen's bed. In 1994, Jim Miller, an American, paraglided naked on to her roof.
Senior members of the Royal Family were at Sandringham yesterday.
Desperate writer glides in to Buckingham Palace to make point
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