to think this couple in the guardian are strange and this was not an appropriate subject for a book?

Yes, and where this story has parallels with The Salt Path is the couple's supposed special connection to the land. The redemption is that they are the ones who can rewild/heal the land wherever they have appropriated in Wales/Cornwall. The red kite circling overhead is a special symbol of how right it is for them to be there - in TSP it is a peregrine falcon ....

I don't think the couple who wrote it are strange. Only the awful Collins couple

Yes, the writing is terrible. It’s a like a children’s story.

A screenwriter would fictionalise events to make it more dramatically satisfying. Real life is always going to need some adapting to work as fiction or screen drama.

I can’t see this being optioned as there’s such a strange ending. There’s no uplifting story, no redemption, just endless questions and darkness.

As I was reading it, I thought that it sounded like a tv drama.

I read this on Sunday and it stayed with me. V odd tale, v badly told. And I too got Salt Path vibes. Obviously there is truth to this story, as there are news reports about it. But what on earth else is there to tell over and above this extract? The extract IS the story, and embellished and padded to tons more than words than needed as is.

I think it’s informative to know we live amongst complete weirdos and bell-ends. It’ll keep us on our toes for sure and educate us how to avoid them like the plague. A bit like the perpetrators programme with DV agencies!

haha I did think gosh they'd have got paid for that in take a break!

you know misery lit is a whole thing right? it sells millions. people want to share their trauma, people want to read about trauma. little kids beaten and abused, women fleeing horrors, families stalked and harassed. it all sells.

agree with pp tho, who'd bother buying the book now? I know what happened.

perhaps they're hoping the book sales will help recoup some of their financial losses

Well, it depends why you would be writing it. But publishers are incredibly careful when it comes to issues of libel on named, living people who may claim they are identifiable and that the book damages their reputation/good character and take legal action. A friend who wrote a memoir a few years back says she spent longer dealing with the changes required by her publishers’ legal team than actually writing it in the first place.

I think this book, for instance, could only have been written in its current form once the Collinses were dead, and because there will be all the police evidence to back up their claims if any of the Collinses’ family members dispute things.

I read this article too. Was also quite baffled by it all, but it's clear the victimised couple went through the wringer and it's all documented, so not sure about the Salt Path insinuations.

Funnily enough I've been encouraged by multiple people to write a book about the multiple "you couldn't make this shit up" things that have swiped me from left field, but I can't bring myself to do it because most of the people involved are still alive and while I'm hurt and angry and having difficulty processing my trauma around some of their actions and behaviour, I am more concerned about destabilising what little calm there is in my life and dealing with potential backlash. It's very conflicting, very "two wolves" and I'm not sure how long it's going to take to "letbit go". The main perps are the types to lash out in any convenient direction, and I'm more concerned about the impact on their nearests and dearests than on me - I feel shit enough already.

But it's interesting to wonder how many people don't write books about experiences that would make very interesting reading for similar reasons, when there are plenty who do. The capacity for people to do terrible, unbelievable things to other people for perceived slights baffles me. Who in there right minds thinks damaging property or threatening life is ever going to end well? But there's the rub I suppose - they're sadly not in their right minds, and also sadly nobody really wins.

I guess it's not truly distinctive as in original, but if it means it sounds more memorable (?!) because of how (supposedly) badly written it is, then I suppose it is "distinctive" in that sense! 😅

But that’s nothing to do with the Guardian. It’s just bits from their book. I don’t think it’s distinctive at all — it’s pretty standard for those types of books, ghost written from interviews with the people involved.

Why on earth would it be 'inappropriate' to write a book about an utterly bizarre experience? And why would you expect anyone to be 'sensitive' about people who essentially carried out a campaign of torture against them, including literally petrol bombing their home and shooting at them with crossbows?

Everyone has the right to write/talk about their own experiences.

It's astonishing that you could read about what happened to this couple and think they are the weird ones here. They were victims of a horrific crime that ruined their lives for years. I'd be writing a bloody book about that if it happened to me, too.

The writing in the extracts wasn't great, in my opinion, but that's not a crime. Most writing isn't great.

It's not something that sounds really bad, in a kind of kitchen sink drama style. I remember when I posted some of my creative writing in the MN board and some kind (!) poster said it sounded like some GCSE student's coursework (charming!)

I think writing, like any creative endeavour, is subjective. Personally, I find the Daily Mail style less tabloid style tthan the Guardian one in this instance (ironically!) But it's not the worst writing. At least they have a distinctive voice.😳🤔😅

I suspect one reason the tone felt a bit uneven and jarring is that it's excerpts from their book which have been condensed and strung together (possibly using AI?). So it feels a bit "off". I did get Salt Path vibes, but I also did a bit of googling and the basic facts of the neighbours' harassment are a matter of public record.

Why would they not write it because of the way the “ perpetrators died” ? Odd. YABVU.

Who are you to judge how they manage things

‘Whole piece compounds my suspicion of everyone who chooses to live in the arse end of nowhere…’

Well, aren’t you charming.

After their ordeal, I hope their book is a bestseller.

Well, not from me. I do think it’s possible that the bit that appeared in the Guardian was run through AI to abridge it, The kitchen smelling of ‘badgers and despair’ is a classic ChatGPT idiom. Maybe the prose of the actual book is less schlocky and ‘colour by numbers’.

I think I have worked out what happened. There was one original farm with a farm house and lots of surrounding land. The older couple buy the farm house, and they would also like to buy some of the additional land but not all of it, but they don't have enough money yet. In particular they want some paddocks. The original owner Bryn initially says he will wait to sell the land so that the couple can buy the paddocks they want, but then he changes his mind because it's too much paperwork. The crazy Collins offer to buy ALL of the land, including the paddocks, and Bryn agrees. They say that once they've bought the whole lot, they will sell the older couple the paddocks, because they are seemingly willing to partition the land up into smaller lots whereas Bryn isn't.

When they're about to purchase the land Collins says to the older couple I'm 10k short, can you lend it to me and it will be a deposit on the paddocks. That is why they agree - they're not just lending 10k out of the goodness of their hearts. It was because they thought it got them one step closer to owning the paddocks they wanted. The land sale goes through so Collins now owns ALL the land around the house. The agreed cost of the paddocks was 25k in total, so they then send the additional 15k and wait for Collins to sort out the paperwork. He then says he doesn't want to sell it to them after all and it seems like at this point it turns sour but it's not entirely clear why. Perhaps the older couple felt deceived and like it was a ploy all along. I'm not sure what Collins actually wanted after this - maybe he didn't want to pay the 25k back and claimed it was a gift or something. At first I wondered whether what he actually wanted was to buy the farmhouse so they could live the life that the older couple were living, which would make the initial fawning etc make more sense. But it doesn't sound like they ever had any intention of selling their house 4 miles away so not sure what the end game was, or if there actually was one or he was just a total nutter with no plan.

Obviously the main error the older couple made was not using a solicitor to purchase the paddock, but presumably they were trying to avoid fees and save everyone money. But they weren't just lending them money - they were trying to buy the paddocks.

Oh, I don’t know. I love ‘fine writing’ (very subjective though) and I also love, and have spent money on, the sort of real life stuff you can read without using too much brain power. But that extract was absolute tripe. Most very commercial writing about real life events isn’t exactly Shakespeare, but it can still flow well and carry you along with the narrative. Make you feel sympathy. I found the writing made me want to laugh. Or cringe. Both to be honest. It definitely took away from the absolutely terrifying and stressful experience they had.

I also think if the writing was better handled, there would be a lot less victim blaming from some of the posters on here. It has turned the couple into figures of ridicule and mockery, which I’m sure wasn’t the intention.

This.
I think writing a book is a very good way of processing and dealing with what happened. Don’t know what there is to criticise about it.

Someone will remember. I think it involved access to a shared courtyard?