We were telephoned this evening (19/09/2018) by a Welsh well-wisher who, after discussing various aspects of our site, gave us further information about the author Jim Perrin: they pointed out to us the entry on his Wikipedia page in which he states that he lives in Ariège, Midi-Pyrénées. (NB. At the time of this alteration he was not, but doubtless to deceive the CMS he was laying his plans to do so.)

Why then, they not unreasonably asked, were The Guardian paying him (as presumably they do each month, sometimes twice a month) to write for them as the Country Diarist for Wales?

Perhaps this question should be directed to the editor of the newspaper herself, Katharine Viner… (We have advanced a theory in previous posts where we suggest that Jim Perrin has Friends in High Places; and receives preferential treatment for reasons which we mortals cannot know.)

Later note: Jim Perrin is now living in France, with his current partner. He moved there before the corona virus struck. It is of interest that he is writing his country diaries as if he is still in Wales… except this elusive man, so difficult to pin down, has been in Wales recently, temporarily living in Talsarnau, in a small property belonging to his partner’s family business. He seems, this Will-o’-the-Wisp, to be able to move freely between France and the UK.

As we noted recently, Jim Perrin has not yet succumbed to his Terminal Lung Cancer (the diagnosis of which he claimed was in July, 2007). Whilst we are aware our words may seem unsympathetic we have explained in previous posts that we doubted the truth of this particular story almost from the beginning and then quickly discovered that it was, on the author’s own admission, entirely un-true.

Jim Perrin was obliged to admit to the representative of The Guardian who went over to Ariège to interview him face-to-face, that he did not after all have cancer; the terminal cancer which he had been proclaiming for so many months. He was, they reported, ‘looking very spritely’, and could no longer keep up the pretence that he was dying; but instead — by using a loophole as imaginary as his illness — he suggested that ‘perhaps [he] had been misdiagnosed’. We learned of that latest development at the time, from an impeccable source; nevertheless it came into the public domain only recently. While Jim Perrin has had the sheer nerve to perpetuate his myth for some years more — despite confessing when ‘confronted’ — his continuing health has finally given the lie to his falsehood. Jac’s sisters have written of this in several posts, the most detailed being on the 11/05/2011,  but we know from our own experience how he always lies so convincingly and his friends probably disbelieved us. (Incidentally, we also have on record — and this is indisputable — that Jim Perrin claimed to be ‘Dying of Liver Cancer’, some eighteen years ago.)

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We will let the following article speak for itself — apart from pointing out what its writer has so successfully proved, that Jim Perrin is far from the infallibility he assumes when it comes to his knowledge of country ways, and the creatures of the countryside:

The Countryside Alliance complains [about Jim Perrin].

”The Countryside Alliance has sent a formal complaint to the Guardian following an article printed on Saturday14 July titled ‘Country Diary: no sanctuary for hunted partridge at Melangell’s church‘, explaining the many ways in which the article fails to uphold the paper’s own Editorial Code on accuracy. Our complaint asks that the article be amended or removed from the Guardian website, and a correction published, and states that if the Guardian fails to do so we will refer the article to the Independent Press Standards Organisation. Continue reading →