Alister Taylor

Alister Taylor (in full Rupert Alister Halls Taylor, born 1943) is an innovative and controversial New Zealand publisher. He published the "Little Red Schoolbook" in the 1970s (widely criticised for its subversive content), and Tim Shadbolt's autobiographical "Bullshit and Jellybeans", as well as significant works on artists C.F. Goldie and Gustavus von Tempsky. Notorious in the New Zealand publishing industry for paying his debts slowly, if at all, he was bankrupted in the early 1980s at the instigation of the Publishers' Association. Discharged ten years later, he began a new publishing venture, reissuing some of his earlier publications in edited and updated form, and establishing "New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa" (first volume published 1992). In 2001 he featured in the London Daily Mirror Sorted column by Andrew Penman and Michael Greenwood - the report headlined "Full medal racket" alleged that Taylor had targeted national heroes in a publishing con.

In 2005 he was again in financial difficulty when the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading was granted an injunction banning him from marketing a range of non-existent publications about prominent Australians. The Supreme Court found that he had solicited fees from Australians to be included in a publication entitled the Australian Roll of Honour series, which did not exist. [http://www.abc.net.au/nsw/news/200502/s1312188.htm ABC Article] ]

His partner from 1978 to 2004 was the journalist and politician Deborah Coddington, with whom he had three children.

References

* [http://www.abc.net.au/nsw/news/200502/s1312188.htm ABC Article]
* [http://www.comcom.govt.nz/MediaCentre/MediaReleases/200607/publishingscheduleagreedbycommissi.aspx Government Media Release]