Those of you who have known me for a while will be aware of my annual involvement with a weighty publication called the “Money Laundering Officer’s Practical Handbook” – or Maloff, in our house. It is updated every summer, and is now in its sixth glorious edition – with a stylish black cover, it makes you look slimmer and smarter just by carrying it. (And more seriously, this latest edition comes complete and resplendent with guidance on preparing procedures to meet the requirements of the Bribery Act 2010.)
Now, I am going to make a confession here – but it’s not as though a blog is public or anything, so I think my secret’s safe with you: I long with a fervid passion, of the intensity I normally reserve for chocolate, to be in the catalogue of the Cambridge University Library. The UL is my spiritual home anyway – I haunt SW6 (South Wing sixth floor, where they keep the crime stuff) and try to look as though I am engaged in research of Great Importance. So to be in its catalogue – well! So when I found myself with a copy of Maloff to spare, I kindly and with no ulterior motive donated it to the UL, and waited for immortality.
Pride, as you know, etc. The book indeed made it into the UL catalogue – and also into the linked catalogue of the Radzinowicz Library of Criminology up the road. But my name did not appear: the publisher was shown as the author. And so I am almost embarrassed to admit that I went in and asked them to change the listing. I waffled something about needing to be able to prove to people that I had indeed written a book I had claimed to have written, but you know and I know my true motive: I wanted to see my name in the catalogue. And now – joy beyond expression – it is. (If you want the excitement of searching for it yourself, go to the Radzinowicz Library page, click on “Search Catalogue”, and look for Grossey as author.) Sigh.
I hate money laundering 