We would like to thank one of our well-wishers for the following intriguing post:
‘To reach 74 and feel the need to upscale one’s CV must be galling; but this is what Perrin had on LinkedIn until May 5th, 2021, when he was forced to remove it:
”Jim Perrin — Creative Director, M.A. in Travel & Nature Writing — Bath Spa University. LinkedIn. And, as it was in the French version, 2011— aujourd’hui 10 ans (this being the relevant point) it continued:
Voir le profil de Jim Perrin sur LinkedIn, le plus grand réseau professionnel mondial. Jim a 6 postes sur son profil. Consultez le profil complet sur LinkedIn et découvrez les relations de Jim, ainsi que des emplois dans les entreprises similaires.”
Someone spotted this and on May 1st. they contacted Stephen Moss at Bath Spa University, the actual course leader of the MA, who told them that Perrin was not Creative Director nor had he been in his time there. So why did Perrin claim on LinkedIn (in French) to be the Creative Director since 2010 until ”aujourd’hui”?
After Stephen Moss contacted him, Perrin removed the deceptive title ”Creative Director” from LinkedIn by the next day. However his amended statement still reads ”Writer 2011 to today” implying he is currently employed by Bath Spa University as a writer. This is definitely not the case, so his untruth stands.
This would be risible if it were not so serious:
• A specific university is mentioned on his LinkedIn to win prestige.
• A specific department is referred to to give him intellectual credibility.
• False information is circulated via his LinkedIn to prospective students.
• (Imagine being taught by him.)
• (Imagine being taught writing by him.)
• What can Perrin teach about truth in writing and/or life?
NB. Perrin’s response to the initial request for him to remove the misleading details was to say ”I had no idea that was on there.” — ”I’ll see if it can be taken down.” — ”don’t actually use LinkedIn at all.” [ * Editor’s note.]
These must be lies because only the person concerned, the client, is empowered to place, amend, or in fact to delete the information on LinkedIn. (Unlike Wikipedia which invites revised information from interested parties.)
And Perrin also wrote: ”I can see that, with the amount of calumny that comes my way, it isn’t helpful to you to have me associated.”
Surely this can be nothing but a reference to the site jacssisters.org and presumably Perrin was intending by this to pre-empt any adverse impression they might have given.’
* * * * *
Dear well-wisher, thank you again for this very revealing post: what we find so fascinating is that Jim Perrin has used the tactic before of planting false information and making claims of intellectual prowess when they were only a fiction. *Whilst there may have been in the past some elements of truth which it has been Jim Perrin’s regular habit to exaggerate, and we learned that in this case, years ago, he had apparently been offered some temporary work — it was certainly he who placed the ‘exaggerated’, and actually untruthful, details on LinkedIn. Only the other day (at the behest of Stephen Moss) removing some though still not all of them: he has never scrupled to post as truth what can be proved to be a lie. For two examples please refer to: Does the ‘Guardian’ country diarist for Wales, Jim Perrin, have a phantom PhD?
and Jim Perrin has lied about his connection with the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre.
It would seem that our well-wisher has discovered here yet another example of Jim Perrin’s imaginary attainments…
Jac’s sisters.