Douglas Bruton: Plagiarist Or Writer?

Douglas Bruton is a guidance-teacher in an Edinburgh High School. He's also a very gifted writer; and he has been accused of multiple counts of plagiarism. Is he guilty? Read on, and make up your own mind.

Early in 2009, Bruton won a prize from the now-closed literary magazine, Cadenza. It was edited at the time by Vanessa Gebbie, who is herself a prize-winning writer. Bruton's prize-winning story was called Waiting in the Scriptorium and when it appeared in print, several Cadenza readers complained that it bore striking similarities to Paul Auster's novel, Travels in the Scriptorium. Vanessa Gebbie had not read Auster's novel so was not in a position to judge: but she knew Bruton, and she asked him what had happened. He denied having ever read the Auster novel, insisted it was nothing but coincidence, and the matter was dropped. It's not surprising that her attention was elsewhere: Cadenza's subscriptions were down, and Gebbie was fighting to keep it going. Cadenza closed for business soon after.

Unless you've read the Auster novel it's difficult to tell if Bruton plagiarised it; but I'm told that if you read the book's précis on Amazon you'll see marked similarities between the two. When Paul Auster's agent read Douglas Bruton's story she was sufficiently alarmed by it to request that she be notified if it was ever published again. With Cadenza closed, there was little else she could do.

Had this been the only allegation of plagiarism made against Douglas Bruton it's likely that all would have been forgotten. But a few months later a new story surfaced, and this one kicked off a real fuss.

For some time, Douglas Bruton was a member of Vanessa Gebbie's Fiction Workhouse (yes, that same Gebbie who edited Cadenza, and who had taken Bruton to task over the allegations about his Scriptorium story). The Fiction Workhouse was an online community based on developing talent and encouraging writing.

It was common at The Fiction Workhouse for members to share news of their successes and when member Tania Hershman won a prize in 2006 with her story My Name Is Henry, she duly reported her win. Her story was much discussed by all members, including Douglas Bruton. However, when Douglas Bruton won a prize for a story called Mondays Smell Of Burnt Toast late in 2008, he didn't mention it at all at the Workhouse. One of the Workhouse's other members found it by chance, realised it seemed familiar, did a bit of searching, and discovered Tania's story: Bruton's story was so very similar to Hershman's that the person who read the two side-by-side decided it had to be plagiarism. Despite this, Douglas Bruton denied all accusations.

Despite his repeated denials, much pressure was put on Douglas Bruton to do the right thing. Eventually he contacted the writers' site which had given him his prize, asked them to take his story down, and refunded his prize money. But Douglas Bruton still denies that he copied any aspect of Tania's story at all and that all he's done is to "build" on it. But there's a difference between "building" and plagiarising from two sources instead of one.

The only part of Bruton's story which doesn't also appear in Hershman's story is the issue of synesthesia. Douglas Bruton comments reguarly on Nicola Morgan's blog: Morgan is a UK author who has written a book called Mondays Are Red, which features someone with a very specific and unusual form of synesthesia. Which is exactly the same form of synesthesia which features in Bruton's story (which has, you'll notice, a very similar title to Morgan's book). Did he plagiarise her too? I don't know. I've not read her book. But it appears that Douglas Bruton has read it, as he's praised it on Morgan's blog.

Since then it's come to light that before any of this happened, Douglas Bruton was asked to leave a writers' group (in the real world, not online) because of his habit of taking the work of his fellow group-members and rewriting it in his own words, and then presenting it in subsequent meetings as entirely his own.

Douglas Bruton has repeatedly insisted that he has not plagiarised anyone. He's published long passages on his own blog in which he discusses the issues of creativity, ownership and plagiarism. But with his stories not readily available for people to read, it's impossible for anyone not directly involved to make up their own mind.

It's about time that changed.

Here is a link to Paul Auster's Travels In The Scriptorium on Amazon, where you can read the reviews; and here is Douglas Bruton's Waiting In The Scriptorium for you to read in all its glory.

Here is a link to Tania Hershman's prizewinning story, here is a link to Nicola Morgan's Mondays Are Red, and here is Douglas Bruton's Mondays Smell Of Burnt Toast for you to read and compare.

It's true that ideas cannot be copyrighted, only the expression of those ideas: it's therefore sometimes assumed that if you re-write someone else's story you're not guilty of plagiarism. This is not so. Precise plot-points, characterisation, structure and so on are all part of the expression of ideas and if someone copies those parts of your work, then they're guilty of plagiarism. No matter what they might insist.


Edited to add: Vanessa Gebbie has pointed out that this post contains several errors. I apologise for those, and will add her comments below this so that the record is put straight. But the central issue about Douglas Bruton and plagiarism remains unchanged.



Corrections from Vanessa Gebbie:

Zoe King was editor of Cadenza. I was her deputy.

Bruton’s story Waiting in the Scriptorium did not win a prize. It was commended.

The Fiction Workhouse was not founded until February 2007. Ms Hershman’s story had already won a prize and been published in 2006. It was linked openly from her website.

Bruton did not join FW until early 2008.