Within an opportunistically short time after our sister died in 2005, Jim Perrin wrote an article about her for the Observer and, we believe, plagiarised the title ‘Touching the Void’; Joe Simpson already had a book published — to much acclaim — and a film had been made of his book, using that title.
Readers might have thought that the feelings expressed in the article were ‘sensitive’, the author was ‘devastated’, his loss was ‘profound’. But wait… There Was a Book In It.
The truth is that Jim Perrin lied — we will not use the euphemism ‘economical with the truth’, and we knew that what we read in The Observer was an adulterated blend of slight fact and flagrant fiction which the author had written as ‘autobiography’.
We contacted the editor, who then was Roger Alton, to ask that he would print our rebuttal; after all, as close sisters (and intimate friends) we knew the truth: our sister was not Jim Perrin’s ‘Lover, wife and friend of forty years’, and many of his other claims were wholly false or vile implication. Continue reading