We have read the review of ‘West’ which Jan Morris wrote for the current issue of IWA’s journal Agenda and when Sir Andrew Motion wrote his review of the book in The Guardian, 24/07/2010, we commented that ‘we relished the element of damning with faint praise.’ We feel Jan Morris’s review has similarities. There are several ideas which could be thought ‘tongue in cheek’ and we were intrigued.

Certain words and phrases she used struck us — written as they were of a book in which, as Sir Andrew Motion pointed out, our deceased sister is a main character:   ‘… fertile imagination’;  ‘a wife died’. (Actually, she was not his wife, as Sir Andrew picked up — only to be ‘corrected’ by ‘Melangell’ (JP?) on the comments thread lyingly stating that she was, and Jac planned to terminate the relationship had she lived.)

‘Given the imaginative genius of its author, though, and the somewhat elusive substance of his recollections…’;   ‘…that dreaded moment of diagnosis’;   ‘…and he himself was diagnosed with terminal cancer.’ (For the record, we have been told that Jim Perrin was obliged to admit that he does not have cancer. Ref. our post: ‘Was Jim Perrin in Ariège for the sake of his health?’) Continue reading →

The following comments relate to a thread about Jim Perrin’s ‘West:’  on the Walkhighlands website forum

To ‘kevsbald’ re.  ‘West:’ …
We would like to point out that ‘the book details’ —  where our sister, Jac, is concerned are mostly incorrect. We believe that the way in which Jim Perrin has written of her is abusive and mendacious.

‘icemandan’ writes that ‘Perrin is  increasingly incongruous amidst the gear ads in TGO and increasingly the only reason to read it!  Quite scathing really and we cannot help but wonder how the editor himself, Cameron MacNeish, would feel on reading this; it could also be thought to be ‘biting the hand that feeds’, when we consider how instrumental that gentleman has been, with his help and consistent support, for 24 years, in establishing Jim Perrin’s ‘reputation’ as a writer. ‘Caberfeideh’ says in reply to ‘kevsbald’ — ‘I do, they all die in the end.’ Undoubtedly the real tragedy of this book, as surely as it must be in Jim Perrin’s life, is the suicide of his deeply disturbed and unhappy son. Continue reading →