Bunhill: New writing dynasty

A NEW writing dynasty is about to emerge - but don't hold your breath. Kevin Maxwell, assisted by business scribe Bill Kay, has finished the outline of a guide to bankruptcy and is hawking it round publishers - so far, without success. Kevin, Britain's biggest bankrupt with debts of more than pounds 400m, thinks the book will sell. 'It's an idiot's guide,' says someone involved in the early negotiations. 'Kevin reckons 100,000 people go bankrupt every year, so there's a market for it.'

Meanwhile, Kevin's mother, Betty, is producing her memoirs. Random Century was interested, provided a percentage of the revenue went to help Mirror pensioners. Betty refused - apparently on the grounds that she, too, was a pensioner and had also suffered. Little, Brown has now taken on Betty's book. She should have no trouble finding people with their own tales to tell of life with her husband: Little, Brown has bought Macdonald, which was once owned by . . . Robert Maxwell.