I received notification of a page about me on Encyclopedia.com> let me cite them as they suggest I should

“Rayner, Hugh (Shoo Rayner).” Something About the Author. The Gale Group, Inc. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 13 Dec. 2009 .

While I’m very flattered to be on their site, this is a cobbled up load of stuff from other sources. It’s not up to date and refers to me as Hugh Rayner writing as Shoo Rayner.

Go to their entry on Elton John and they refer to him as: Elton Hercules John 1947-, English popular singer, pianist, and composer, b. Reginald Kenneth Dwight. (I don’t need to cite them – that’s fair usage!) Why Can’t I be Shoo Rayner 1956 – Children’s Author and Illustrator, b. Hugh Rayner, for those who want to try and find me in the future?

I’ve spent all my life being called Shoo. At school I was merely known as Rayner, such were the times and the school regimes. When I was old enough and realised I could, I changed my name by deed poll to become, legally, the person I am. I don’t know this Hugh Rayner. Encyclopedia.com are claiming that he wrote all my books!

I want this stopped or else it will go on and on for ever. It’s probably too late already. I’ve sent them an email, but what[‘s the chances that anyone ever reads anything there, let alone does anything about it.

Reference Information you can trust, they say. Well obviously you can’t. Someone, or more likely a semi-intelligent program has scanned my site, mis-read or mis-interpreted the information and decided it knows best.

Our identity is all we have and Encyclopedia.com has just given mine away to someone else – what’s worse, that someone else doesn’t exist.