Dutch copies of Endgame selling for eight times the retail price after being pulled from shelves
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Dutch copies of Endgame are selling for eight times their retail price online after the book was pulled from shelves in the Netherlands because it identifies the two royal “racists”.
Two translated copies of Omid Scobie’s new book have been listed on the website Marktplaats, formerly part of eBay, and have received almost 20 bids as of Thursday morning, with a top price of €185. The book’s retail price is €22.99.
The price of the books, which erroneously include the names of two members of the Royal family in relation to a racism row involving the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, is expected to increase throughout the day.
The two names do not appear to have been included in any other edition of the book, which is called Eindstrijd in Dutch.
It is not known how the Dutch version came to include potentially defamatory information.
On Thursday morning, Scobie insisted that he had not included the names in the manuscript of his book, saying that he “wrote and edited the English version of the book with one publisher”.
Asked by This Morning presenter Craig Doyle about the “bizarre” addition of the names in the Dutch version, he said: “It’s still being investigated right now… I’m as frustrated as everyone else and I make it as clear as possible in this book that I want to adhere to the laws surrounding this subject.”
On Wednesday night, the Dutch publisher, Xander Uitgevers, appeared to row back on earlier claims that the identification of the two Royals was the result of an “error [that] occurred in the Dutch translation”.
In a new statement, it said: “The rectified edition of Eindstrijd by Omid Scobie will be in bookstores on Friday, Dec 8. Xander Uitgevers temporarily removed the book from sale due to an error that occurred in the Dutch edition.”
A spokesman also told The Telegraph he was unable to divulge further information, saying: “We’re investigating it.”
Endgame claims that the Duchess of Sussex, 42, sent a letter to her father-in-law, then Prince Charles, in which she expressed concerns about unconscious bias in the Royal family.
The letter, first revealed by The Telegraph, was sent in the wake of the Sussexes’ March 2021 Oprah Winfrey interview, in which Meghan alleged that a member of the Royal family had speculated about the colour of her unborn son’s skin.
Scobie reveals that the Duchess complained to the King about two people who had upset her by making comments about Prince Archie’s skin tone. However, he stops short of naming them in the English language version of the book, citing “laws in the UK”.
The Dutch version, pulled from the shelves just hours after it was published, is different. Page 128 discusses the letters sent between Meghan and the King. “In those private letters, an identity was revealed and confirmed,” it says, before naming one of the alleged culprits.
On page 334, Scobie returns to the subject, identifying both people named in Meghan’s letter who “took part in such conversations about Archie”.
Rick Evers, the Dutch royal reporter who first revealed the discrepancy, is said to have been asked by the publisher to remove his tweets revealing the names of the royals as it was “against copyright laws”.
