
I am not a libel specialist.
However, my general sense is that, whatever the legal rights and wrongs, a rich and sufficiently motivated company (or person) could make things very difficult and expensive indeed, even if they ultimately lose in court.
@ana_valdi All I know about libel in the UK is that it's routinely used to suppress information inconvenient to the powerful.
But if you're writing and publishing a book, you have a publisher and an editor, and knowing about libel in the UK is their job, right? Unless the publisher is also you.