Writing.Com General Discussion

As I'm past the big "middle of the book" hurdle with my new novel and am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, I'm faced with a question that might throw all my hard work right out the window. In fact I'm so worried about this since I started thinking about it that it's blocking my motivation to keep writing those last few chapters. I'm hoping someone with some insider industry knowledge and/or legal knowledge can help me out.

My story is entirely self-experienced, though my novel is written in third person (= not a memoir) and it is not mentioned that it's a true story. I'm thinking of including it as an author's note at the very end that it is in fact a true story, but I'm not advertising it as such. I have of course also changed all names to fictive names.

That said, anyone who knows any of the people involved in real life or parts of the real-life story can certainly connect the dots. Locations, work places, etc. all remain unchanged, and the prospect of having to change all that, to re-locate the entire story, feels daunting to say the least.

The issue, really, is the antagonist. Even if named differently in the book, he is put in a very bad light. All of the bad things that he does in the book he did in real life too. While I'm improvising some dialogue as naturally I can't remember everything word for word, all events and the general implications of the dialogues are real and I have made it a point to stay very true to what really happened. I'm not lying about anyone or making anything up.

The "bad things" are primarily related to cheating and compulsory/complex lying, in other words nothing illegal, so I'm not making any accusations with legal implications, only personal. The book "Duped" by Abby Ellin comes to mind.

So my question is: Legally, am I in the right to publish my story because it is my own experience, or am I getting myself into trouble related to defamation and privacy? If I'm not legally in the clear, what steps can I take to make my book legal? (I'm fearing I know the answer here: change settings, work places, etc. even if I don't change the plot itself — a mammoth task that I would rather avoid.)

If it makes a difference, I have written confirmation from the real life antagonist that my claims in the book are true (in the form of a message history where I asked a lot of questions and he confirmed everything), I'm based in the UK and am planning to go via UK publishers, and all defamatory claims/events in the book are of a personal nature with no illegal activities.

I have already e-mailed a number of publishers in an attempt to get some insight on defamation/privacy law but have not yet had any responses, hence why I'm asking here.