sqlFetch on MySQL-DB

Dear all,

I successfully set up a local MySQL-database. Connecting via RODBC is 
not problem, the same in fetching 3 of 4 tables. But trying to 
connect to table 4 fails.

author<-sqlFetch(test,"author")

Error in fromchar(unclass(x)) : character string is not in a standard 
unambiguous format

In principle I understand that error message, but I don't know any 
solution. 

Thanks for any help,

Bernd

version

_                           
platform i386-pc-mingw32             
arch     i386                        
os       mingw32                     
system   i386, mingw32               
status   Under development (unstable)
major    2                           
minor    3.0                         
year     2005                        
month    10                          
day      06                          
svn rev  35759                       
language R