The Salt Path revelations should be no surprise to anyone in publishing

For me, as a book publishing insider of more than 30 years, not very. A quick tour of the last couple of years in the book trade reveals many similar examples: self-confessed serial plagiarist Johann Hari’s most recent book, Magic Pill, contained inaccurate claims that had to be corrected post-publication; Boris Johnson’s hyped political memoir, Unleashed, boasted a string of errors (including, unforgivably, the number of victims of the 7/7 bombings); and Steven Bartlett, a podcaster exposed by the BBC as regularly platforming health misinformation, has been gifted his own imprint at Penguin Random House.