Waterstones ‘will not stock Bettison’s Hillsborough book on Merseyside’

GIANT book retailer Waterstones says it will not stocking Norman Bettison’s book on the Hillsborough disaster in Merseyside.

Bettision, pictured, who was a chief inspector in the South Yorkshire Police at the time of the 1989 tragedy, has written his personal account on the disaster in the book titled Hillsborough Untold.Norman Bettison

Waterstones, which has shops in Liverpool ONE, Birkenhead and Southport, said in an online statement: “We can confirm that Waterstones is not planning to stock Hillsborough Untold in Merseyside.”

The book is due to be released on November 17 on Amazon, but is available to pre-order now on their website and on Waterstones online.

A statement on the website of Biteback Publishing, which has acquired the “world rights” to the book, says the book “describes how the Hillsborough disaster unfolded; provides an insight into what was happening at South Yorkshire Police headquarters in the aftermath; and gives an objective and compassionate account of the bereaved families’ long struggle for justice”.

The synopsis on Waterstone’s website said the book: “seeks respectfully to explain, however, why he feels he has been unfairly scapegoated in Parliament and through print, broadcast and, significantly, social media, and why that may have distracted from the inquiry’s aims.”

Sheila Coleman, of the Hillsborough Justice Campaign, told The Liverpool Echo Mr Bettison’s decision to publish the book before the two investigations into the 1989 disaster concluded was “wholly inappropriate”.

She added: “I think the idea that it would be sympathetic to families and survivors is totally disingenuous.

“This is the man who, after Hillsborough, went on to become chief constable of Merseyside in the face of great opposition.

“He has never been sympathetic.”

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