Julie Myerson lied to her publisher

Already the target of considerable anger from her son Jake, whose alleged addiction to ‘skunk’ cannabis has been painfully laid bare in her new book, The Lost Child, author Julie Myerson (pictured) has now been forced into making a humiliating public apology to her publishers.

Myerson had assured Bloomsbury, who also publish JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books, that she definitely was not the anonymous author of a now defunct column in the Guardian called 'Living with Teenagers', which chronicled the travails of a family remarkably similar to her own. Bloomsbury took her at her word and when on Tuesday the Daily Telegraph asked whether it was true Myerson wrote the column, Bloomsbury’s acting publicity director, Colin Midson, was able to deny the allegation.

However, in yesterday’s Times (there isn’t a paper that isn’t following the Myerson saga), after initially telling an interviewer she was not the author, Myerson called back and admitted she was. She said the reason she had lied was her "desire to protect the identity of her family", which might strike some as a bit rich considering the publicity she has invited upon her family over the past fortnight.

Which meant that Colin Midson had to go back to the Telegraph yesterday to correct himself. "When I told you that Julie was not the author of the column, I did so in good faith, as that is what I had been told by her," he said. "Julie has since explained her reasons for having denied her authorship [and] has apologised to me for any embarrassment it may have caused."

The word in London publishing is that not only will Bloomsbury continue to publish Myerson, but that the publication of The Lost Child is being brought forward to capitalise on all the attention. ·