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Beirut27 asked this question about Half Broken Things:
Is it only me or is this book -quite well-written, I am currently rereading it- strongly reminiscent of A Fatal Inversion by Ruth Rendell ? Actually if I were her son and heir I would tempted to sue Morag Joss for plagiarism... Anyone else having read the two novels and got the same, quite unpleasant impression ?
Morag Beirut27, and Cheryl: When I wrote Half Broken Things I had never heard of Vine's A Fatal Inversion. (I have of course heard of it since, because rese…moreBeirut27, and Cheryl: When I wrote Half Broken Things I had never heard of Vine's A Fatal Inversion. (I have of course heard of it since, because resemblances in plot were commented on when HBT was first published; I understand that the sensibilities of the two novels are very different, however.) I have still not read A Fatal Inversion. This is a fact. If that conflicts with your ugly perception of my novel as a rip-off of Vine's, too bad; it doesn't alter the fact. I have never read A Fatal Inversion.
HBT arose from my interest in the importance of 'the house' in the English novel (as opposed to 'the road' in the American novel), and a thematic preoccupation, which I have explored in several other novels, with characters who are solitary and rootless. This is well documented.
There are dozens of English novels from C18th onwards in which houses operate as characters, and which feature enclosed, isolated groups of people. AFI is clearly one of them and HBT is another.
Neither of you knows me, so you can't know that as a practising academic, as well as a writer, I have both a professional and personal abhorrence of plagiarism in any form. You can't know, either, how angry your casual, libellous accusations concerning my integrity and moral compass make me - but be assured, very angry indeed.
Beirut 27, your other, personal message to me was abusive and arrogant. I cannot imagine what you think entitles you to write to a stranger in so offensive a way; perhaps you don't think, or perhaps you are just unhappy or ill.
Yours sincerely, Morag Joss(less)
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Beirut27 Hereafter my "offensive message" :

'Dear Ms Ross,

If you didn't read A Fatal Inversion before writing Half-broken Things then it proves that, unlike the ...more
Aug 24, 2017 08:22AM · flag
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Half Broken Things
by Morag Joss
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