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

[HildegardVonBingham]

My jaw was on the floor as I read this. Obviously it’s awful that they were subjected to a campaign of harassment, absolutely no excuses. But I do think it’s insensitive to write a whole BOOK about it, given that the perpetrators killed themselves in a double suicide?! I also don’t know who just lends a neighbour £10k!!! Whole piece compounds my suspicion of everyone who chooses to live in the arse end of nowhere…. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/05/dream-home-turned-nightmare-in-wales-stalker-neighbours-stalked-book

Or they were cheated of getting their experience into the public record during the trial because Collins pleaded guilty at the last minute in exchange for a lesser sentence, so they’re taking the opportunity, like many other people, to write a standard, ghost-written ‘Here’s an awful thing that happened to us’ memoir. Unlikely to be particularly well+written or to sell in large quantities, but the publisher clearly thinks it’s worth a punt, possibly post-Baby Reindeer.

But isnt it up to them the victims to decide for themselves? no one has to buy it or read it so why is it anyone elses business?

I don’t think that’s how it works.

Yes. Very much Salt Path vibes.
And an odd choice for the guardian to give 2 whole pages to.

Can’t imagine living with that sense of helplessness and terror.

I don’t know why anyone would find it strange to tell the story.

But unlike The Salt Path, which was a tissue of lies, there’s a large amount of evidence for the events of this book, from the police investigation, 999 calls, evidence marshalled for the trial, and inquest into the Collinses’ deaths.

I’d be writing the book to try and get my £25000 back, and so they should….

I agree the writing style is jarring but good luck to them if they want to make some money out of it. They certainly don’t owe the departed inveterate nutters any sensitivity.

I feel their ultimate goal is to get the book optioned for the movie or TV drama. That's where the real money comes from for many authors. The quality of the writing doesn't matter (or even if it was entirely written by a human) since they're just selling the rights to the story.

It’s just that standard, ghostwriter ‘unfortunate events’ house style, I think, and then summarised for newspaper publication.

Thank you @Victoriawould24 I completely agree!!! DP read it and kept rolling eyes and going ‘off to buy ANOTHER vehicle!!!’ Obviously the deceased were nutters who unjustly terrorised them. However I don’t think I could in good conscience pose outside my farmhouse in my best toast casuals looking harrowed and world-weary for the guardian photographer knowing that Cassie’s bereaved mother would likely read it! A woman who remains with such a violent man is not of sound mind, and I really feel for her parents.

Nothing wrong with that, either. Otherwise someone else says ‘I heard about that — might make a good series’ and the next thing the couple know, their lives are the inspiration for an ITV stalker drama and not a penny better off.

Why did Francis and Cassie Collins do it - the campaign of intimidation ?
What a strange couple.
I’d love a psychiatrist’s perspective.

They’re writing about it for the same reason you read that long article and why you’re posting here in fascination about it all.

It sounds like she was in a violent, abusive relationship with a dangerous man that eventually led to her own death. Someone wrote upthread she had chronic pain due to a motorcycle accident. In the author's own description, she was always chatty and pleasant whereas he came across as odd.

The couple have been through hell. Why would they be thinking about someone they haven’t even met?

I think if Cassie had been shooting crossbow bolts through my windows, I’d probably think my feelings about that were at least as important as Cassie’s mother’s.

I think the parallels are more in the cringe writing style and the demographic it appeals to, a white obviously affluent (or formerly as presented in TSP) middle class middle aged couple wronged who apparently lap up such niche pity porn without question or care for quality or dramatic license (obviously TSP was and out lie after lie) if the protagonists are relatable as ‘one of our sort’.

It was very much giving The Salt Path vibes to me

I had the same thought. Lending huge amounts of money to strangers seemed very odd. Maybe the book explains in more depth.

EDIT: That’s actually a bit too identifying, so I’ll leave it.

I don’t disagree about the dreadful clunkathon of style, or the likely demographic of the target readership, but I think there’s a key difference when a quick google gets you media coverage of the detail of the inquest that corroborates the story.

(Whereas when I read The Salt Path years ago. I thought the vague and sketched-in backstory of blamelessly losing their house was odd enough to poke around on the internet to see if there was anything more illuminating publicly available via media court reporting etc. Only to discover that not only was there no mention of any such court case, but ‘Raynor Winn’ had no online existence at all before her book contract.)

Thanks for starting this thread, I really wanted to discuss this after reading it. I was also stunned when they agreed to lend them thousands of pounds. I googled the Collins' afterwards and I thought he looked very menacing and unsettling, even in the picture where she is smiling.

I loved Wavewalker!

Probably to make the £25k they lost back. I doubt they ever got it back.

The whole thing does seem bizarre and something you'd watch on Netflix, so far removed from every day life but I really feel so sorry for Cassie, it sounds as though she lived a life in pain and misery.

They were described as a loving couple who were very close but she most probably had extremely low self esteem due to her pain issues and was drawn to a sociopath who was more than likely that way due to severe PTSD from serving in the army.

I have just read an article about their deaths and it seemed so sad she was found in bed with her beloved pets. I wonder why they chose separate ways to end their lives. I don't think all rings true. I wonder if she was forced into it?

I know they couple when through hell with these two but I'm not sure if writing a book about it all would sit well with me.

Tragic all round really.