Last evening saw the return to print for Abby Lee a.k.a. Zoe Margolis as the 'Girl with a One Track Mind'. Her new book focuses on what happened after The Times chose to out her and destroy the anonymity she had sought to protect when her original book was released.

Choosing to reward her many Twitter, Facebook and blog followers with a semi-private event, around 100 people assembled in an upper room of Canal 125 in London N1. A varied mix of "real* readers", some sitting in a circle on the wooden floor, gathered to hear Zoe read selected passages from her new book 'Girl with a One Track Mind Exposed', following which she took questions and signed advance copies of the book for those present.

As her debut effort had been intended to be a wholly incognito affair, it transpired that the evenings' event was to be Zoe's first time at reading her own work to an audience. She needn't have worried though, as spurred on by the presence of an audience that was clearly on her side, it flowed effortlessly. Taking first a piece recounting a conversation on gender politics, then a guided tour of London man, she warmed to the task with consummate ease. She then moved on to what she saw as the limitations of the Rampant Rabbit, before finishing up with a section from what is the crux of her book, being outed by The Times. At this point, the room was so silent, you could have heard the proverbial pin drop were it not for the sound of Zoe's voice itself, the mood around the room was almost reverential and the applause following the close was as warm as you are likely to encounter anywhere.

Given the opportunity to question Zoe in person, there was little reticence from those in the room and the possibility of a return to the film industry, the 'Zoe Margolis Seal of Approval' and many other topics were covered, before she settled down to a well earned single malt and the signing of many, many books.

As she later commented on Twitter, she returned home "drunk, happy and totally gobsmacked by how nice everyone was"; I would struggle to argue her point having been there. I'm looking forward to reading the book immensely.

*geeks

I mentioned in Reading Material that I'd read Girl With a One-Track Mind by Abby Lee. The briefest moment of Google based curiosity turned up the circumstances around what happened next. For anyone who might wonder where I've been for the last 3 years, I've been living in a vacuum constructed of sand.

Following the trail through from 'Outed' to yesterdays' 'Integrity' paints a very sordid picture indeed, and I don't mean Abby Lee's extracurricular proclivities.

The banner of 'public interest' has long been one that the press have been fond of quoting in justifying the sometimes dubious means by which they 'create' copy. They are happy to let the public believe that 'public interest' is synonymous with 'what the public is interested in'. It's long been known that 'sex sells', and on that basis, surely 'more sex sells more' doesn't it. So having gained the rights to serialise excerpts from 'Girl...' and presumably in the process exhausting what it could reasonably include in a national newspaper, it went after the identity of the books' author. The manner in which they went about this resulted in Zoe Margolis losing any semblance of privacy she had enjoyed and her career into the bargain, all for the sake of a 'work experience' journalist trying to get onto the bottom rung of the ladder. Was it not enough that they ran up the circulation with the serialisation, did they really need to go for the vinegar stroke [if you'll pardon the expression]?

There is a fair case for saying that in running the blog, the success of which resulted in her securing a publication deal for her words, Zoe was reliant on exactly the same public reaction to the subject matter as the newspapers rely on to sell copy. I cannot argue the point either that there was probably some naivete on her part to believe that her anonymity could be retained for any extended period of time given the interconnectedness of all things web and the need for interaction with others to put a book on the bookstore shelves. If you want to keep a secret, tell no one, not even that there is a secret, should be the adage here.

That said though, this just one of the very many non-stories that we're fed on a daily basis, to titillate and distract us from what is often the mundane life we lead. I mean, what sort of story is "man and woman have sex; then do it again shock!" - isn't the entire history of evolution predicated on the experience? I'm not suggesting for a moment sex is boring, far from it, but I really don't care who is doing who no matter how well known or otherwise they may be. Was there nothing more valuable to society that could have been typeset?

Seems our hack journo is now crying foul over the reaction caused in Blog World because it turned their attention on her - frankly, 'Unlucky'. The only silver lining I see in this is that in publishing this latest article, perhaps some of their customers have had their attention drawn to the furore this has caused - many of them will never have engaged with blog world and to quote Anton Ego, maybe some are due some "fresh perspective".