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

Yeah, I would expect more from the Guardian than to serialise this terribly written account, even if they (their journalists) did not write it themselves.

I think the trouble with the tone is that this is an entire book edited down to just an extract, so things crop up that would be explained naturally over a book, but suddenly appear with no real reference. There's no space to build up tension or set-ups when it's just an extract, so that's what gives it that weird AI-flavour, which is a shame because the writing could actually be very good but they've gone with prioritising the story (which is very sellable).

I read it yesterday in Guardian. I thought it was good to let people know how something like this can happen. But writing a book ??

Writing books after trauma seems to be a thing. Waterstone's had a whole shelf of misery memoirs. Of course, you don't here from the people who don't write these books, or fail to find a publisher.

It did seem badly written. Perhaps AI was used by the Guardian to edit it?

They, arguably, got off lightly. Their water supply had already been interfered with. The guy had access to amphetamines and there's other really nasty stuff that could be added to water.

I wonder what will happen to the land now. Maybe the house couple will be able to buy it

It’s a weird story. While I have no problem believing that very unpleasant neighbours in some sort of bizarre folie a deaux could make your life a nightmare, there was a few things that didn’t stack up. Firstly, they supposedly couldn’t afford the land they wanted, and which the seller promised them (said seller, Bryn, seems to vanish from the narrative despite the fact that he reneged on his promise and got them into this mess in the first place), then the new ‘neighbours’ ask them for a lend of money to help buy said land on yet another promise, and despite them having already been burned once they do this. The story doesn’t state the exact acreage involved, but with the 25k they seemingly had knocking about to lend to people who were essentially randoms, and if the description of the land as water meadow is correct, they could have potentially negotiated a sale of at least two acres at that amount from ‘Bryn’, or even as much as six acres if it was classified as ‘rough grazing’, which is only 4k-6k an acre. Then there’s the fence. The type described cannot be erected by one guy on his todd and would be in breech of planning at the hight described, it would also be expensive as security fence costs at least £250 a panel and requires a certain amount of ground work or thousands of kilos of ballast unless you want it to blow over in the next light breeze. It'd cost thousands to erect and it’s not something you can just knock up on a whim.
While there’s probably a kernel of truth to this sorry tale I can’t help feeling that elements of it don’t sit right.

I read this too and found it unsettling. I thought the couple didn’t look like they matched and didn’t act like they knew each other very well— and were delusional just in a different non-violent way. My guess is that one of them works in publishing or something and has been given a leg up.

It's their story to tell I suppose, but an article length of their awful writing is more than enough for me, double I could get through an entire book written in that style.

“The kitchen smelled faintly of badgers and despair” 😆😆😆

The whole thing was obviously AI but that bit was the most AI!

I can understand writing to work through trauma.

That does not excuse decisions to publish it.

I agree with others on here, I can't see anything wrong with it. I would have done the same thing probably.

Completely agree with previous posters that this sounded like it was written by AI!

If some of these 'I didn't see anything wrong with the writing' posts are to be believed I can't wait to see the Good Reads reviews.

There's mention that the bloke was involved with organised crime. Maybe he also owed money to the kind of people who would make sure they got their pound of flesh and he decided that the best option was suicide?

I think it's very hard to excerpt from a book into a newspaper article because you have to cut so much out that it reads very jarringly. I suspect reading the book would be a much better experience because it would flow better and you wouldn't go from 'nice new neighbours' to 'deranged stalkers'. There clearly was a strong friendship between them for a time if Collins referred to the author as being like a father to him, but you don't really get a sense of that in the article.

As the noise and fear mounted, the civil case we had begun over the land we had paid for progressed at a snail’s pace.

I rest my case.

They lost a lot of money to that couple. I'm sure they were partly motivated by the advance payment. And why not?

That will only have netted them a few grand, at best, though. I assume they're just writing it up so that anyone who fancies adapting it for the screen will need to pay them to option and then to actually do it -- potentially much bigger money than the kind of small advance two non-writers lending their name to a ghost-written 'Bad Thing That Happened To Us' memoir, depending on who's interested.

Read my post at the bottom of page 5, I think I have figured out what happened with the sale of the land.

But the fence is completely true, if you google their names you'll see the reporting and the images captured of the fencing and Collins dressed in black

(I don't think he would have given a shit about planning for the fence)

I read it yesterday because it popped up on my facebook page being pushed by the guardian. The comments underneath the article were rather entertaining and picking up on the writing style.

It interested me though and I did some googling. It does appear to be verifiable and all rather strange. I can’t understand why the perpetrators had such a vendetta that they firebombed them. There must have been some very complex mental health issues.

I also found a press reader version of the story where the couple explained why they wanted to move to Wales. How they lived in an area with lots of chemicals on the land, their dogs kept getting cancer, they wanted to get away from this poisonous place etc. I did think, bet you didn’t disclose all that on your house seller pack!

Definite shades of Saltpath, but with some actual truth behind it.

Awful! But it did remind of my eldest son a few years ago when he was about 9. He tasted something I made for him and said it tasted of sadness🤣🤣 He was probably right.

That's definitely plausible but the part of their story that makes no sense is that Collins showed up with a brand new Harley Davidson. The older man "ran back to the house to Google the price of the bike" which came out as £25,000 and it was clearly bought with "his money". That scene is utterly bizarre.

Was it a totally fake scene shoehorned into the memoir to elicit sympathy or generate some kind of visual dramatic moment? Surely Googling the price of motorcycle is hardly a crazy epiphany. How did he know for sure the Collins spent exactly that money on the bike rather than just pocketing it and having spent it on something else?

If Collins bought a bike then that means they didn't spend the 25K on the paddock. Surely Byrn would have interfered by then since he didn't get paid? If they did spend the 25K on the land and simply didn't pay them back, where the did money for the bike come from?? Utterly baffling plot holes

And I'm not a expert in motorcycles but I'm positive the cost of a HD can vary hugely. Just like every single car brand can vary depending on whether you buy it second hand, at what mileage, what model etc. How on earth did that older man find a model that costs exactly 25K, conveniently corresponding with the same amount he lent them to buy land?

"Sometimes we'd talk about it softly over breakfast, sometimes we'd sit outside in silence, letting the wind and birdsong fill the gaps that words couldn't reach. We were changed, both of us. Scarred, yes, but also sharpened, more awake to the fragility of things - the land, the sky, the small mercies we'd once taken for granted. As the autumn light faded over the hills, Amanda stood beside me on the field we'd once fought so hard for, her hand in mine"

I mean come ON!! This isn't the Year 7 creative writing competition