Is It Plagiarism Or Just "Straightforward Copying Of Someone Else's Work"?

News filtering out of Great Heaving today suggests that, contrary to claims that Mrs Threadbone's inspirational Christmas message was penned entirely by herself, the serial Dorset Business Woman of the Year may in fact have received professional help. Rumours emerging from within the multi-national conglomerate suggest that none other than veteran romance writer and DHRA stalwart Rowena Westlake (“He Came Upon The Midnight Clear”) may have been drafted in to help and may be responsible for some of the sentiments expressed - possibly even some of the actual words contained - in the 32 (+2) line poem sent to DHRA members earlier this month.

No one was available for comment at the Threadbone Corporation headquarters today though night watchman Bruce Knight-Watchman did offer the view that it was “none of my or your fxxxxxg business”.

Meanwhile the Sydling St Nicholas Sun is on the case. “There is a serious claim to literary status at stake here” editor Ron Nasty claims, “and that woman has a track record. Where there is malpractice and perhaps even malfeasance, the Sun will be there all journalistic guns blazing and our investigative motors firing on all cylinders. 'Verum est de stercore' (roughly 'out of crap comes truth') and all that", said the former Chetnole Grammar School classics scholar turned sleazy journalist. "It is Christmas after all and after the annual office trip to Brenda's Everything You Can Eat for a Fiver Drive-in Fast-Food Dinerette we are very well stocked in the crap department".

A close friend of Mrs Threadbone's who did not wish to be named denied claims of false representation though hinted that more than one hand may have been involved in the seasonal poem. "I detect a certain muscularity in the style - a hand with a very firm grip - and naturally one thinks immediately of a certain ex-Spanish Boy Scout", she said. "More than that I could not say", she added.

An extract from Ms Westlake's signature seasonal novel is available HERE

with an audiobook recording HERE

Rowena Westlake - beloved of DHRA members - is a famous for her heart-warming romances and warm good humour - a literary style "somewhat at odds with her personality" according to the late Professor Brian Thrupiece.