We were told some time ago by an impeccable source of the following — and revealing — exchange:
The Guardian newspaper, concerned that one of their regular Country Diarists, Jim Perrin, was now terminally ill, sent someone to Ariège where the author had taken a property for the sake of his health. (‘Taken’? Well, we were later made aware by one who sadly had been involved, that there was large degree of skulduggery in the transaction… ) The Guardian visitor was to write an obituary for the dying man, in expectation of his impending demise from the Terminal Lung Cancer with which, he said, he had been diagnosed in 2007. He had informed the whole world of his condition and, in the most particular medical detail, of his Brave Battle. (Writing of it in a book; in newspaper articles and in climbing magazines; appearing at literary festivals and being interviewed on the radio.* So, you see, we are not gratuitously exaggerating… ) Continue reading