Named and shamed

If a character you create has the same name as a real person you could be in trouble, says John Sutherland in The Guardian. Take Jake Arnott's latest novel,Johnny Come Home:

In his narrative, set in London's tin pan alley in the 70s, Arnott introduced a character called Tony Rocco: a one-time big-band singer, now an impresario and a big-time pervert in the Harry Starks mould. Nasty. Alas, out of obscurity, escorted by his learned friends in wigs, emerges the real-life Tony Rocco: former big-band singer and a figure of unimpeachable respectability.

Exit the book. Exit, also, many thousands of pounds from the coffers of Arnott's publishers, Hodder and Stoughton.