The potential ramifications are depressing, believes Jamie Byng, managing director of Canongate books - which famously published the "unauthorised autobiography" of Julian Assange after a dispute with the Wikileaks founder. He agrees that publishers should try to ensure the integrity of non-fiction books, but insists that an autobiography will never be an impartial account of events.
Similarly, he argues, readers have an obligation to use their own critical faculties. Claims about Armstrong's doping had circulated for years, Byng says. The public, he insists, were free to make up their own minds. "It's laughable that someone is seriously thinking about doing this," he adds. "The idea that just because someone calls something a memoir it's definitely the truth is so naive. Every narrator is unreliable. Armstrong is a total piece of work and I'm not trying to defend him, but this wasn't the first time this happened and it won't be the last."
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