Our review of West which having been on Amazon for many months, was later removed, we think at the request of its author. This is our review:

‘Jac’s sisters believe that Jim Perrin wrote his book ‘West: A Journey Through The Landscapes Of Loss’ on at least one dishonest premise — that is, his relationship with our sister Jac (Jacquetta).  He claimed falsely, as we can prove, that she was his ‘lover, wife and friend of forty years’, and we in our blog ‘Jacssisters’ are explaining how things really were.  Please do read it if you wish to discover the truth about Jim Perrin’s relationship with our sister.

He (we believe disingenuously) wrote this account as one part of his ‘triad of tragedy’ as he put it, referring to the death of his son, the death of our sister, and his diagnosis of terminal illness.  However, it has now come to light, and we have learned, that another part of his ‘triad’ is in doubt.  We are relieved for his sake that Jim Perrin has had to admit he is NOT, as he told his readers and interviewers, dying of terminal lung cancer.  Nevertheless, yet another fulsome review of his book ‘West:’ has been posted, this time by ‘Mark’.  We suspect that this is a plant by Jim Perrin (N.B. see the other two reviews by ‘Mark’, one sycophantic to a degree, and one slating an exceptionally sensitive travel writer) and we will add the name to those we believe Jim Perrin has used as aliases; either to muddy the waters of our own account (ref. A Question of Identity on Jacssisters blog), or, (and we believe that it is not impossible that he does this frequently) to puff his own work.  We cannot recommend this book for your Christmas list.  It is not in our opinion an honest book, and be warned, it is full of gratuitously salacious material and is in parts, we believe, thoroughly nasty.’

Jac’s sisters.

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We sent our review to Amazon, prior to Christmas, on 12/12/2010.  It was the first time we had posted one on their site and together with our comment endorsing a posting by ‘The Wanderer’ in October, they were only two of eighteen reviews/comments up to that time; subsequently the total grew to thirty-three.  We believed then and are now completely convinced that the majority of these postings were spurious and had been ‘planted’ by the author Jim Perrin, using various aliases.

In response to the posts on our site ‘jacssisters’, and to the reviews and comments we had posted on Amazon, for example those mentioned above as well as others later in which we had written in great detail of our suspicions of Jim Perrin, ‘Mac’ wrote a comment of his own, as well as a review, on 3/2/11.

They remained for several months until — as was pointed out to us by a friend — the comment disappeared.  That was noticed on the 30/5/11. The review however was still up much later and we, not a great deal wiser about the ways of the internet, thought that perhaps reviews were given a higher status than comments; but no, ‘Mac’s’ review then, as well as nearly all those reviews and comments which we had posted, was deleted.

One of ours did stay up, for a considerable time, the one quoted above.  It was used on the hard-back thread, paper-back thread and also, to our surprise, the ‘kindle’ thread.  However this too has now been spirited away.

We felt certain that the hidden hand of an arch-manipulator was at work as those postings by others as well as ourselves which in any way expressed disapproval of Jim Perrin were subsequently also caused to be removed, we believe by him.

As stated elsewhere we have no idea who ‘Mac’ is and, as we promised, we are now posting his comment which was deleted by 30/5/11, and his review which remained up for some time longer. They are plainly expressed, and whilst giving an opinion so contrary to the image which Jim Perrin himself promotes (and prefers to be promoted) yet they are valid.  Fortunately, Jacssisters  have kept print-outs…

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Mac said in a comment,  posted on 3/2/11 and deleted by 30/5/11:

‘There’s something quite disturbing going on here, which no one apart from Jacssisters seems to have picked up on.  Is it really true that Jim Perrin ‘falsely informed’ the world that he was dying of ‘terminal lung cancer’?  It it is true, whatever possessed him to tell such a repulsive lie, and what did he tell his children who had already lost a brother?  Did they believe, like the rest of us, that their father was dying of cancer?  Given that Jacssisters are able to prove that much of ‘West’ is distortion, how can we now take anything he has written at face value?  Anyone who is blessed enough to belong to a loving and loyal family will fully understand why Jacssisters are defending their sister — and more power to them.  I am truly very sorry for their loss and for the unnecessary pain ‘West’ has inflicted on them all, especially the children.  Had Perrin written an honest account, or better still, not written about her illness and death at all, then none of this would have been necessary.  How some of these reviewers can defend his behaviour is beyond me, after all, we base our opinion of the man on the integrity of his words and deeds.’

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This was his review by ‘Mac’ posted on 3/2/11 and removed, possibly in July or August:

‘I’m very glad I borrowed this book as I would have been most annoyed if I’d wasted my own money on it.  I’ve never felt compelled to review a book before but like T. Hardaker  [later * by JS’s],  I am incensed.  He betrays the memory of his former partner by using her personal suffering and tragedy as a mirror in which to reflect himself.  Dylan Thomas he is not.  Thomas is the closest a non-Welsh speaker will ever get to experiencing the music and rhythm of the Welsh language, and although sometimes overblown, Thomas flows with the honesty of his origins.  Perrin’s self-conscious and self-important writing is illustrative of a man trying too hard to portray himself as clever and poetic.  At best, it is Karaoke Thomas.  Jacssisters are quite right, some of the reviews reverberate with Perrin’s style.  Very, very disappointed and expected better.’

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The * was added by us to record that T. Hardaker’s review and two comments to which ‘Mac’ refers have also disappeared, as well as several other posts which were deleted from Amazon as we noted previously; (including now ‘Mac’s’ own of which we kept a print-out and have been able to use above.) We have print-outs of ALL of them to show in the future. As one sister said: ‘Who but Jim Perrin could be bothered [to have them removed] or would have the motive?’ and surely, she was right…

Jac’s sisters.