Earlier this week [Canadian author], Atwood, 69, elected to bow out of the event after receiving reports that organizers had banned the launch of a novel there by British author-journalist Geraldine Bedell. Called The Gulf Between Us, the novel reportedly has a character who is both a sheik and gay, with an English boyfriend.

However, in an e-mail yesterday, Atwood said “none of the stories we have heard so far about the [alleged banning of the Bedell novel] have been 100 per cent accurate.”

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