Firstly, there are notes of explanation:

Our sister Jac had been taken by her daughter to Yorkshire after the calamitous period prior to and following the Christmas of 2004; ref. our recent posts. She was utterly worn down: her chemotherapy had so depleted her reserves and weakened her that this period of calm and peace with a loved sister was to be the perfect interlude for her. She was not allowed however to enjoy it for long without being reminded of Jim Perrin’s ‘love and support’ for her. These excerpts are from just some of the many letters which he wrote to her during those three weeks when she had chosen to go and stay with her ‘Yorkshire’ sister: when he knew how desperately ill she was and how she longed for quietude…

We cannot sufficiently emphasise that Jac’s sons are lovely, normal, happy, out-going young men, occupied then as now with their lives and careers. The content of these letters has no foundation in reality and we feel that Jim Perrin would have done well to stay in his study in the caravan and write his books and travel articles, instead of spending his time haranguing our poor sister so mercilessly with this questionable onslaught. Continue reading →

After her penultimate course of chemotherapy Jac was taken by her daughter to stay with her ‘Yorkshire’ sister, as they had arranged between them just after their sad Christmas. That had been a most traumatic time and Jim Perrin’s anger still had not subsided; Jac was relieved, and very happy to be able to go away and to escape the controlling behaviour with which she was beset .

He wrote in his book, West — ‘In January Jac went for three weeks to Yorkshire, staying with a sister whilst she tried different treatments.’ (ref. page 263).

The reason that she went to Yorkshire was to spend time away from Jim Perrin. She even considered staying there for her final session of chemotherapy. She was stressed and unhappy in her own home, so much so that even at that extreme point in her illness she chose to go away to the peace of her sister’s house. Continue reading →

Following the quite dreadful and emotionally exhausting week after Christmas — as well as the long months before — during which Jac had suffered from Jim Perrin’s intransigence, and her consequent decision to go to Yorkshire for three weeks to escape him, ref. our post Gone to Ground, he tried, as was always his way with her, to overrule her wishes.

Even in the aftermath of his uncontrolled assault on one of her sons,  ref. our post Breaking Point, and after the melodrama of his caravan ‘sit in’, he wrote to her from the caravan, only days later, a letter which was (unbelievably, considering the very recent circumstances) still full of recrimination, and annoyance with her sons, family and friends.  At the end of this two-page letter — with no hint of remorse, contrition or apology for his recent behaviour— he tried to persuade/prevent Jac from going away to stay with her ‘Yorkshire’ sister as they had planned after he had attacked her son…

Bearing in mind his latest transgressions — even his cruelty towards her, he still (amazingly, it seems to us) had the nerve to write to her in this vein.  For background to this, please read our post ‘Swallow Falls’ in which we describe how Jim Perrin had, in a conversation with our sister, blamed her family for his own failure to be able to relate to his son.  Not unnaturally she had refuted this yet given the circumstances we have shown above, he still, like a dog with a bone, wrote the letter from which we now quote, which demonstrates his determination always to justify himself: Continue reading →