Canadian folk singer Loreena McKennitt yesterday returned to London's High Court, inan effort to prevent distribution of a revised biography, which has been the subject of a landmark privacy judgment. Two years ago, she succeeded in preventing publication of significant parts of a book about her life by Niema Ash, a former friend, and last year that decision was upheld on appeal.

Lawyers warned that the McKennitt ruling was likely to present publishers and biographers, as well as media organisations, with stiffer legal hurdles. Yesterday, however, Ms McKennitt and Ms Ash faced each other again in court, in a dispute over a revised version, which Ms Ash is seeking to distribute.