In April of this year, on Amazon, we read an intriguing review of Shipton and Tilman. Written by Mr. Bob Comlay, 27/04/2014, it seemed he had first-hand knowledge of one of the subjects of the book, and he was by no means complimentary to the author. Therefore it was hardly a surprise — when one considers his scorpion’s sting — that ‘Llywarch’ countered with an attack in support of his hero, Jim Perrin (we of course believe ‘Llywarch’ is Jim Perrin!): the posting of this poisonous comment was evidently an attempt to devalue and even to invalidate Mr. Comlay’s review. Continue reading →

Readers of our site will know we are convinced that ‘Llywarch’ is one of the aliases used by Jim Perrin. We first mentioned it in 2010 when, as ‘Llywarch’, he responded to a review on Amazon by a young and outraged member of our family — one which we had no idea that they had written. The reply was so pontifical and so patronising that we knew by its style and content that it could have been written only by Jim Perrin. (As we said at the time: ‘Who else but He would care, or would be sufficiently interested, or would have the motive?) All the clues were there, and we have explained the reasons for our conclusions, with examples of others of his texts, in several of our posts.

Five days after the review was posted ‘Llywarch’ (JP?) — so sure of himself in his egotistical certainty — hit back with this reply: ‘Great hatred, little room…’ and, he said: ‘…or better still, buy Cleese and Skinner’s “Families and How to Survive Them”.’ Thus revealing the use of both literary quotation and of book recommendation common to nearly all his contributions, that is, as Jim Perrin and as ‘Llywarch’. Not so easily quashed our young family member took him on: ‘Jim…’, he began. Subsequently ‘Llywarch’ (JP?) removed his own lengthy comment presumably becoming aware that it incriminated him. We do, of course, ‘have a print-out’ and we promise to show it at a later date.

*       *       *       *       *

1)  This is the review of West we mentioned above, posted by our young relative on 01/10/2010. (It was quickly removed from Amazon and, given the outraged response in the comment which followed, we can be absolutely certain that Jim Perrin caused it to be deleted.)

‘I have never submitted a review to Amazon before, but after reading “West” I felt I had to. Much of this account of Mr. Perrin’s “journey through the landscapes of loss” should be filed under “Fiction”. Having met the author on several occasions, and considering that Jac (one of the book’s main characters), was my Aunt, I find this an incredibly disturbing read. An honest book? I don’t think so, for a start she wasn’t even married to him. I believe this book libels my family (P.6 “West”) and the disrespectful and distasteful things written about Jac (if she was still alive and able to answer for herself) I know she would be horrified to read, yet alone what her own children must think. No disrespect to Mr. Perrin’s regular readers but I cannot give this book a good review considering the content. My mother and her two surviving sisters have been writing a blog about Jac’s life, hoping to redress the balance and to put down Jac’s side of the story. I would encourage anyone who has read “West” and is interested in Jac’s life to visit this blog. Unfortunately I can’t leave a link on this review due to Amazon’s rules, but if you google ‘jacssisters’ you’ll be sure to come across it. Thanks for reading.’

*       *       *       *       *

2)  This review caused outrage and five days later a comment was posted in retaliation by an incensed ‘Llywarch’ (JP?). Regular readers of Jim Perrin’s writing, whether in books, articles or reviews or, as in this case, comments, will hardly fail to recognise his inimitable ‘style.’

“Great hatred, little room!” [This] review appears to be part of an orchestrated campaign, apparently from family sources, mounted against this book. I’ve read “West”, which is essentially a very helpful and humane book about grief rather than about personalities. It’s a loving and beautifully written account, taking off from the author’s desolation at the loss of son and partner within nine months. Everything I’ve read against it on the web from “sources close to the family” is frankly venomous. It makes me – and I suspect any other perceptive reader- wonder what pathological guilt is behind these attacks on a book that celebrates and enshrines in the memory a personal response to someone who sounds to have been a lovely woman. Interesting that no such sense comes across from those relatives who are only concerned to debunk and demonize the man who wrote it! I’d urge readers to balance the tones of the two testimonies and make up their own minds about the characters involved. Or better still, buy Cleese and Skinner’s “Families and How to Survive Them” and ignore all the poison being put about. The most telling phrase in the above review is “she wasn’t even married to him” – i.e. “she’s ours, and the rest of you can lay off”. Pound to a penny there’s history here, and frankly, I’d rather not know about it, though every strident new attack is telling us more. ‘

Do note, he deleted this highly incriminating comment, little thinking that we had a print out! (Or that we would post it!) And we would point out in response to: rather than the personalities, of course it was about the personalities (predominantly Jim Perrin’s); and never were we anonymous, as Jim Perrin has demonstrably tried to be, nor did we, or anyone known to us, use the phrase ‘sources close to the family’. We spoke out under our own names (and continue to do so); and from the start: which is more than Jim Perrin has ever done, cloaked, as he prefers to be, in anonymity. And as to pathological guilt? — ours is not the guilt… (Nor, in our opinion are we the pathological liars.)

*       *       *       *       *

3)  Our nephew’s response to ‘Llywarch’s’ comment: ‘Jim, why you don’t use your own name instead of hiding behind these pseudonyms is beyond me. What do you expect if you write a book with lies about someone’s family in it instead of what really happened? Stay tuned to the blog folks, it’s gonna get interesting!’

Not only did Jim Perrin arrange for the review to ‘disappear’, taking with it his own following comment ‘Great hatred little room.’ (W B Yeats) and the comment by our nephew, but he went through all the reviews and comments on the Amazon thread and caused those which were critical, including our own, to be removed. He must have had his own hot-line to the moderators, as he did on The Guardian thread; but since then there have been other adverse reviews and he is probably aware that were he to have them deleted we should very soon remark on it. Again: ‘we have kept print outs’ of those removed and may well in good time post them too. Some which he deleted were relatively innocuous and their removal showed, it would seem, only his ‘perrinoia’.

*       *       *       *       *

Evidently by now Jim Perrin was becoming increasingly uneasy that we were proving so determined — despite his best efforts to thwart us. (And it is most revealing that he has, as Jim Perrin, used that self-same phrase: …ignore all the poison being put about, when trying to convince supporters that he is hard-done-by.)

Apart from our replies to him when he was using his alias ‘Melangell’ on The Guardian thread (and again ‘revealingly’, he last used it on 12/7/2013) — we had by then set up jacssisters.org, 07/09/2010, and we observed an element of desperation in his responses, under his various aliases, to our posts and the information revealed in them…

So: in Jim Perrin’s own words (masquerading as ‘Llywarch’) : we ‘urge readers to balance the tones of the two testimonies and make their own minds up about the characters involved.’ Jac’s sisters think this is a most excellent idea…

Jac’s sisters.