A joke that looked as though it had backfired, leaving an Oxford author with a £1,411 bill, has instead embarrassed Oxford City Council.

In 2002, Andrew Malcolm briefly opened a bookshop opposite Balliol College in Broad Street, Oxford.

He sold his own book but also covered the windows with posters criticising the university and its publishing arm, Oxford University Press.

It was part of a feud against OUP dating back to 1984 when the publishing house declined to publish Mr Malcolm's Making Names.

Earlier this year the city council sent him a summons for £1,411 unpaid business rates on the shop, plus £60 summons costs.

But when Mr Malcolm turned up at Oxford Magistrates' Court on Thursday, city council revenues manager Anne Harvey-Lynch told him the summons had been rescinded.

She added that a recorded delivery letter had been sent to his Brighton home the previous day.

But Mr Malcolm said the letter did not arrive until after he had set out for Oxford by car and insisted he be taken before a judge to demand costs.

Mr Malcolm said: "I was very disappointed and demanded that I have my say in court."

As a result he has been paid his travel expenses. Mr Malcolm, who insists he never ran a conventional bookshop, described the summons as "barmy".

He said: "I formally claimed exemption from business rates on various grounds, such as public information and non-comm- erciality."

Ms Harvey-Lynch said: "The case was only brought to my attention recently. On reviewing it we decided not to proceed. We apologised in court."