To review, or not to review, that is the question:

 

We have always copied onto our site any comments we have posted following reviews on ‘Amazon’  (or The Guardian ). This was a).  to achieve maximum coverage of the points we made, and b).  to ensure they were safe-guarded from Jim Perrin’s attempts to have them removed — moderated — which, on several occasions, he managed to do.

The comment which we now copy is one we posted on Amazon after the ‘Llywarch’ review (an alias since changed to ‘Tim Bartley’) 12/11/2013, of the book by Harriet Tuckey  (‘Everest, the first ascent:’)  which was this year awarded two prizes: ‘The Boardman Tasker Award for Mountaineering Literature’, and the ‘Jon Whyte Award for Mountain and Wilderness Literature’, Non-Fiction.

Why was the review posted? Did the reviewer hope, at that late stage, that his opinion could influence the outcome of the judging? — or, might it have been an error of judgment on his part…   We think it was very poor judgment.

Our Amazon comment begins:  ‘M. Holzel said: ”How odd that someone from Oregon, USA would deliberately plant [le mot juste] a highly negative (and fact-free) review in the British Amazon blog rather than the American one”.’  This is something we have noticed ourselves and written about in a post on our own site, ref. Can Jim Perrin be taken seriously?  02/06/2013.

We have been reading this comment thread with interest, given that it follows a damning review by ‘Llywarch’,  a name we have long been convinced is one of several aliases used by Jim Perrin. Again, in our opinion, it might seem that ‘he’ is out of his league, reviewing with all the bitterness of sour grapes.

‘Llywarch’ (JP?) reviewed ‘Into the Silence’, By Wade Davis, giving only one star! Out of, so far, 130 customer reviews 100 awarded 5 stars to Mr. Davis…

Now, ‘Llywarch’ (JP?) shows Harriet Tuckey the same courtesy, awarding her a derisory 1star for her twice-prize-winning book ‘Everest, the First Ascent.’  Is he not showing himself to be a snake in the grass with the venom he spits at authors whose work, it might be said, far outshines his own? He comes across as almost deranged.

We are glad that others are now beginning, as we have suggested in our postings, to ‘join up the dots’, hopefully to reveal the real identity of ‘Llywarch’.

And the ‘boycott’ (again, Mr. Holzel);  we would not dignify Jim Perrin’s absence from the Boardman Tasker awards ceremony in Kendal  (our home town…)  by such a description — with, perhaps, the connotation of principles which, in our view, he singularly lacks. We consider, given his circumstances, it is more likely that he chooses these days not to venture his esteemed head much above the parapet: it should not be forgotten that Jim Perrin is a ‘wanted man’ — wanted by the Child Support Agency;  and probably  (trying to keep one move ahead) uneasily, is ever looking over his shoulder…’

Jac’s sisters.

N.B.  Later note, 09/07/2018.  To continue our theme: Today we looked at the reviews for Harriet Tuckey’s book. It received sixty-four, 83% of which were 5 star and 12% were 4 star; one person gave three stars, one person gave two stars (and, they said,  the ‘contents are fabulous’ — stars were docked because the book was so badly put together the photographs were falling out!).  And, the sting in the tail, one person gave 1 star. His review was nasty, too ‘clever’ by half, and a thorough disgrace. Purporting to have been written by ‘Tim Bartley’ (whose previous incarnation was ‘Llywarch’) it cannot be doubted that this bore all the trademarks of well-known author of anonymous letters, Jim Perrin. (See our post ‘Jim Perrin writes an anonymous letter’ for evidence that we are not libelling him.)

Had Jim Perrin given more thought to the advisability of actually posting this review, with its clearly incriminating aspects, perhaps he would have resisted the temptation to excoriate Harriet Tuckey’s otherwise so well received book. On the other hand, even if he realised later that it was not such a good idea (merely to showcase his spite and superior knowledge — and to ‘name-drop’), were he to remove it, in itself that would appear suspicious; that is to those who follow our claims that Jim Perrin is ‘Llywarch, is ‘Tim Bartley’…

Jac’s sisters.