The British chapter of P.E.N. has issued a strong condemnation of that nation’s Draconian libel laws — pointing out that because of them, many important books are simply not being published there. “The real victims here are authors and readers, who are missing out on important non-fiction stories about global finance and corruption in high places as a result of these legal failings,” Jonathan Heawood, director of English PEN, tells The Bookseller.com. One London bookstore went so far as to call me, trying to fulfill customer requests for Rogues’ Gallery, which has been kept out of England for fear of libel tourism. As I can’t afford a buy-one-get-an-airplane-ticket-free plan, I had to say I couldn’t help them. As one New York newspaper editorialized not long ago, “If authors believe they are too vulnerable, they may be discouraged from taking on difficult and important topics, like terrorism financing, or from writing about wealthy and litigious people. That would not only be bad for writers, it would be bad for everyone.”