I don’t know. The detail uncovered by CH in her investigation, most recently shared in the podcasts, leaves TW’s exact role in much of it more shadowy, but makes it apparently clear that SW was the mover and shaker behind the various thefts, the one who went to London to borrow from ‘Cooper’ although he was TW’s relative and friend, the one arrested, the one who seems to have written the confessions, the one who fronted up all book publicity and maxed out other paying gigs like appearances, Gigspanner tours, Arvon teaching etc, handled the contact with Bill Cole, wrote the statements on her website after the Observer stories etc etc. Stylistically it seems clear TSP and its sequels were written by the same person who wrote HNTDDR, and there’s no evidence to suggest that was anyone other than SW.
However, while it’s clear why TW could not appear, hale and well, on chat show sofas, or indeed publicly appear much at all, CH’s investigation has given us so much more information about the actual SW (compulsive liar, thief, manipulator extraordinaire, yet also given to self-sabotage in getting too greedy (she might well have gone on stealing from Martin Hemings for years to come had she not stupidly stolen cash she was supposed to deposit and drawn his attention), shitting on her own doorstep in stealing from immediate family, and pissing benefactors like ‘Anne’ and Bill Cole off unnecessarily, lying unnecessarily, writing lengthy confessions etc etc), we only get tiny glimpses of TW.
‘Cecille’ says TW was distraught when SW skipped bail and went missing, fearing she’d hurt herself, and SW herself says in her confession that she only left him a note, and presents TW as implicitly ignorant of her thefts, and as someone fragile and beloved who needs to be kept out of the mess and worry of debt etc. And neither family, on discovering the thefts, seems to have thought he might be responsible, even though the money stolen from his parents went into his account, according to SW’s confession.
On the other hand, he seems to have spent much of his adult life either in low paid jobs or unemployed, and can’t possibly have believed they could buy Land Rovers or French properties on SW’s earnings as a PT bookkeeper.
And, obviously, the illness scam requires his active collusion, lying, pretence of symptoms etc, and it’s clear that TSP would have been just another walking book without the emotional appeal of TW as charismatic, dying saint and raconteur, stumbling, one leg dragging, along the SWCP to redemption. The three-book deal signed with PRH after TSP was based in large part on the public appetite to know what became of lovable, dying Moth, poster boy for a horrible illness.
But it’s hard to know to this day exactly what his role in all this is. Is he the mastermind, with an adoring SW as front and patsy? Or is he a rather passive, workshy individual, good at spending, bad at earning, who just sat back and accepted that money had always arrived via his wife, often mysteriously, and never asked questions, just spent it? Was he always a hypochondriac or just feigning illness in earlier years? Did he know his wife was stealing from his parents? What did he say when they confronted him with the theft while SW was gibbering, pretending insanity and hiding in cupboards, like a cut-price Hamlet?
Has he had an active input into how his ‘illness’ has ‘progressed’, or how to present it publicly?
Why did he drop his mask when BC brought the young cider makers to Haye, when surely going on Rick Stein and pretending to make cider and be dying, and getting unnecessarily involved in the film to the point where Jason Isaacs was weeping about his adorableness on all possible occasions, was far riskier in terms of scrutiny?
Are he and SW mutually-devoted, or are they simply in far too deep in the scams to disengage? What has he been doing all the time, while SW wrote, did events, did media, did gigs etc? Is he resentful that his role as the dying husband means that he can’t charm chat show sofas and book festivals, or gad about in fast cars and yachts?