Hislop: The Mirror looked silly"
Private Eye editor Ian Hislop has hit back at the Daily Mirror for ambushing his book-signing in Canary Wharf – which also houses the Mirror’s headquarters.
Mirror staff waved placards bearing the words "Gnome Go Home" and the paper gave the stunt the whole of page three on Wednesday.
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The ambush was the latest episode in Mirror editor Piers Morgan’s long-running feud with the Eye editor. Hislop claimed it was part of an attempt to gag his magazine.
"Pathetic, I think that is the word," he said. "He’s making his employees look like idiots. They shuffled up saying ‘Gnome Go Home’ and then went off again. They got booed by people who had been queuing up for hours."
Hislop refuted a claim that a spokeswoman for event organiser Books Etc had said the stunt was "really funny".
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"What she actually said was ‘the Mirror looked silly, it did not interrupt the event at all’," he said.
The stunt follows a series of threats in the Mirror of a forthcoming "shock" exposŽ" on Hislop – which he claims was provoked by stories in Private Eye about the DTI investigation and share-tipping scandal.
"I don’t know what’s wrong with Piers; perhaps he’s gone mad," said Hislop. "He seems very, very angry. He has got men outside my door, he’s combing through Friends Reunited – he even rang up my vicar.
"He has spent six months saying he’s got this amazing dossier: so amazing, he hasn’t published any of it."
The Mirror says it is still working on its investigation into Hislop.
By Ruth Addicott
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