We are so sorry to have learned that John Appleby, whose remarkable blog Footless Crow has given countless readers such pleasure, has died following an incident in Snowdonia.

He was a keen and most experienced climber who though the weather conditions on the day were perfect had a dreadful fall when a piece of rock broke away in a freak accident.

It is virtually impossible to find words in such a situation; words with which to condole with grieving partners and family and we are thinking about Christine and all those who loved him at this time of great sorrow.

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We first knew John when we questioned a review he had written of Jim Perrin’s book West, and we told him of the actual circumstances of our sister’s time with that author; of how the book was a travesty. He explained that he had formerly been a fan of Jim Perrin and had admired his climbing and that he had known Jac before the outset of their relationship, but when he learned how quickly it had deteriorated and how she had suffered at his hands he was appalled and said he wished to help to ‘put the record straight’. He went on to suggest that we ‘write a blog’. (We had no knowledge of the internet or social media and our instant response was ‘what is a blog?’)

Most generously John offered to set up a site for us and he did this incorporating pictures of Jac’s stained glass as well as lovely photographs of his own: we wrote the posts and he put them up for us. There can be no doubt as to the value of what John achieved for us in the years he was solely responsible for our website, Jacssisters, and we will never forget his kindness and commitment. We could not have done it without him  and his work on the site was invaluable to us. We will always remember him with gratitude and affection for all that he did and and for his enthusiasm on our behalf and for Jac’s memory.

There is a thread on UKC where several of John’s friends and fellow climbers have registered their memories, and one comment by Mick Ward is particularly moving.

Elisabeth Simpson, Caroline Hardaker and Alex Richardson.

In several of our posts we have detailed Jim Perrin’s imaginative and highly successful strategies to outmanoeuvre the the CSA — the Child Support Agency, and more recently the CMS — the Child Maintenance Service (which superceded the CSA).

We know that (and astonishingly) he has, over virtually two decades, managed to defeat the attempts of these government departments to pin him down; and we have shown how time and again he has foiled their intentions to bring him to justice.

It would perhaps have been unwise for us to write of the most recent news we have been given about Jim Perrin (and we thank the well-wishers who have contacted us) as we might have been treading on official toes, but we are now free to tell of his current antics because they are indisputably in the public domain.

So: we can report that Jim Perrin was ‘invited’ to attend the Magistrate’s Court in Caernarfon, North Wales, on August the 18th. He did not respect this first summons and failed to attend the second, on October the 20th. Thus, and in a pattern long-established, he has again shown his utter contempt for the government bodies (who have already spent what must be a considerable fortune at the expense of tax-payers) as they have tried, and so far failed, to get to grips with this most slippery of individuals.

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Nb. Of our several posts referring to this aspect of Jim Perrin’s ‘career’ the most comprehensive was posted as far back as November the 9th, 2018:  Has Guardian contributor left the country in a hurry? and we described how he has systematically used the women in his life to subvert the plans of the CSA and, latterly, the CMS to locate him. Our sister Jac was one of these partners, as he moved into her home yet kept from her any clue as to his real motivation. (Although he did propose that he used her sister’s address for his post!)

We believe he has moved to France where he has mostly been for several years (with an occasional visit to Wales) and that he lives in his current partner’s property in Village de Senesse de Senabuge.

Jac’s sisters.

Nb. We are now able to state that Jim Perrin is indeed living at this address. (And this begs the question: how is it that he is continuing to write diary entries for the Guardian as if he is living in Wales? The answer is that he is a liar and a fraudster.)

Our previous post incorporated a report recently sent to us and it was noted that on his Linkedin page Jim Perrin claimed to be ‘the Creative Director, MA, in Travel and Nature Writing at Bath Spa University’. Our post shows conclusively that this was a lie, and Jim Perrin was guilty of false pretences. He had never been, nor was he to ‘aujourdui’ (as he had stated) the holder of this position.

Following this post another well-wisher, one with some connection to the university, has contacted us to tell us that ‘West’, a book by Jim Perrin, was included in the list of recommended reading  of that department…

Those who are familiar with our site will be aware with what abhorrence this book is held — not only by ourselves, Jac’s family, but by many others. (Indeed, Tobi Mundi, who founded Atlantic Books, and who published ‘West’, later told us that ‘It was the book [Jim Perrin] should never have written’.)

That it should be on the recommended reading list at Bath Spa so disturbed us that we contacted Stephen Moss — the actual head of that department — and explained our deep misgivings. His response was instant and courteous, and to our relief and great gratitude he removed it. He explained that it was probably included in the list by Paul Evans, a previous head of department, [and someone Jim Perrin has claimed in the past as his ‘best buddy’], and ‘most definitely it should be deleted’.

Any student, guided by this reading list, and who undertook to read ‘West’ almost certainly would have researched it’s author Jim Perrin; almost as certainly they would have found our website, ‘jacssisters.org’. Much as we deplore the book, and the man who so deceitfully wrote it, it could surely be said that this cloud (its further publicising) has a silver lining. Anyone reading the posts on our site can discover for themselves that the author of ‘West’ is a liar, a cruel and malevolent person, and in so many other regards nothing less than a charlatan.

Jac’s sisters.