Books: Cover Stories

CLOSE ON 40 years after the assassination of JFK, our fascination remains as great as ever. Now comes news that Peter Cox of literary agency Litopia has uncovered a "mystery woman". "Judith" was allegedly the lover of Lee Harvey Oswald in the months leading up to November 1963 - despite being married, and a Mormon to boot. Now she has emerged from the shadows with a manuscript which, says Cox, contains "an incredible amount of convincing detail" to persuade him she did indeed have an affair with Oswald, one ended only by Jack Ruby's bullets. Cox plans to introduce Judith to publishers at Book Expo in LA later this month.

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STEVE MACDONOGH, the Kerry publisher who so upset Mrs T with One Girl's War, the memoirs of a former MI5 officer which helped pave the way for Peter Wright, seems set to anger a British government again this autumn with Days in Ireland: Bernard O'Mahoney's account of his years with the British Army in Ireland. Born in England to Irish Catholic parents, he joined up to avoid jail, at a time when Irish units were exempt from duty in the province. When this changed, O'Mahoney reports the story of an officer who advised his men that, if they shot, they should kill outright - as a dead man couldn't dispute the Army's version. A crate of beer was allegedly promised to the first soldier to "kill a paddy".

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THE EMERGENCE at the funeral of Francois Mitterrand of his love-child Mazarine Pingeot was a surprise to everyone. How proud he would now be at her emergence as a novelist. French critics have compared her to de Beauvoir and Sagan. In June, the British can decide when First Novel is published by Fourth Estate. It is the story of Agatha (like Mazarine, a philosophy graduate), the daughter of a publisher and a Chilean exile with a past too painful to recall.

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MICHAEL Owen has grabbed headlines with the news that HarperCollins have paid him at least pounds 1m for three books. A memoir is included, although some think twentysomething a little soon for that. More sensible, perhaps, to do what David Seaman is doing - wait until your valedictory season. Orion have paid what was (until Owen's deal) the largest advance ever to a player. They will publish as the Arsenal goalie kicks off his final season.