Kenneth G. Ross - Legal Action Against Angus & Robertson

Legal Action Against Angus & Robertson

Once it became known that the film version of Breaker Morant was near release, the Australian publishing house Angus & Robertson re-issued an out-of-print, remaindered and not widely known 1973 novel, The Breaker, that had been written by Kit Denton.

It was issued with great gusto, with the original 1973 front cover, plus the factually incorrect announcement overlaid across one corner of the cover: "Soon to be made into a major film".

This announcement was incorrect for two reasons:

• it was Ross's play, not Denton's book, that was being made into a movie, and
• Denton's book was never used to create any part of the film script (a script for which Ross had been one of the writing team from start to finish).

In 1980, Ross took legal action against Angus & Robertson in the Supreme Court of South Australia for re-issuing the 1973 book with the factually incorrect announcement on the cover. With the support of crucial evidence provided by the film's director Bruce Beresford, Ross won his case. Angus & Robertson withdrew the 1979 version of Denton's book from sale, and trashed all the remaining copies.

Another, "revised" version of Denton's book (minus the cover announcement, and with a picture of actor Edward Woodward on the cover) was issued by Angus & Robertson in 1980, which sold considerably more copies than his earlier, 1973 version.

Ross's emphatic legal victory did not receive a lot of publicity at the time; and many people today still labour under the misapprehension that it was Kit Denton's 1973 book that was the source for the movie.