Coming Clean by Liz Fraser

[RhinoRhino]

A couple of threads that I had posted on relating to the Memoir ‘Coming Clean’ by Liz Fraser have been deleted from the MN site, apparently due to non-compliance of the MN guidelines from the posters. MN are obviously well within their rights to delete threads if they demonstrably fail to comply with their guidelines, nevertheless I feel strongly that MN posters are given a platform to critique this book, and also any other public ventures by this author. It would be neither fair nor right that posters are completely silenced in this particular matter.

As such, and in line with Mumsnet not seeing “anything wrong with honest feedback” I would like to make the comment that Coming Clean as a Memoir falls short due to the shaky and not entirely truthful narrative. There are certain facts contained within this memoir that are easily disprovable (for example, relating to the marital status of both author and her partner when they started their ill-fated affair), which leaves a massive question mark over the rest of the book. Is it entirely reasonable to make money from something that is promoted as truthful when it is, in fact, not entirely true?

I think there are people whose lives have been negatively impacted by the book and its subject matter, and I hope that MN will agree that these people should have a voice, as should anybody who wants to comment on a published piece of work.

As long as posters align their comments with the MN guidelines, this is a topic that people may wish to keep discussing, and also keep in the public domain. And if MN wants to provide a set of rules particular to this thread – certainly if they are arbitrary and differ from the general guidelines - I am sure it would be very helpful.

Mumsnet, please help us to help each other by keeping in the public domain something that us silenced mums feel should be out there.

Another room will walls lined with photos of her, taken by the child in rushed snaps between breakfast and teeth.

That’s not an unplanned photo it is carefully staged to make it look like the other one and poor daughter probably had to take quite a few until there was one her mum was happy with when she would probably rather be doing something else

If she’d said, time lapsed this photo, people might think, wow, how clever. To suggest it’s a fluke, people think bull💩 is it. Less is more.

And how many times does she need to post them both? 'look at these photos!!!!' (photos) 'I mean these ones!!!!' (photos) 'These photos!!!!...' (photos)

I doubt she was worrying about the cost of heating and the bath with so many trips to Europe , we are going to Europe for first time in years in August I have had to save up and I do have a day job that pays a salary

I know I’m still fairly new amongst you guys and have only just seen the truth. But my goodness that post tonight. The woman is tone deaf, the COL crisis is ongoing it didn’t end on the first day of spring.
I do wonder is there really so many meet ups after school? They just suddenly popped up every week, every other day.
My disappointment in getting hoodwinked into this, and if she’d hadn’t made such an issue about trolling I’d have never looked and would still be the numptie waving a flag!

Those were my thoughts exactly re: being tone deaf about the COL crisis! She really made it sound like a brief, passing inconvenience that is now over. Words fail me - unlike her who always has room for hundreds more when none one or two would suffice. Rinse and repeat seems to be her go to....

Wow. The cost of living crisis continues for the majority with high food & fuel prices, massive energy bills & rising mortgage rates. For Liz it was a 5 minute worry about bath water in January because she prob lives in her two homes mortgage free. What an insensitive tone deaf idiot. To think she was asking for cash from her supporters to make ends meet as a 'solo parent'. It's indecent.

Her Tuesday night post is hilarious. Two men at her table?! One's her very own giant son, but the other hairy armed one? Who's she lured in? And drunk wine and eaten rose petals with? Too late for the postie. Is it ex husband, Trapped Dad, or some poor new future threat to her safety? And more importantly, HAS M SEEN that she's moved on and drinking in new pastures????
She's so predictable.

Read the account as someone who obviously has some behavioural issues. Learning needs? ADHD definitely.

Think you need to bear that in mind. There’s something weird about all the social media feeds, the capitalisation, over sharing. Just odd.

"I LOVE growing older"

Really?

One thing LF has made very clear is that she doesn't love growing older. Her IG account is full of nonsense. When she posts that she's so HAPPY, I now just think that she's actually really miserable, or when something is BLISS she's actually having an awful time (which she'll inevitably complain about in a few months, saying how HARD it was)

Wot? No submissions guidelines?

Some words of advice from this helpful and supportive mumsnetter ……….

Yesterday in my lunch break I googled and read through the submissions guidelines from a few UK publishers. There are some pretty generic guidelines to be found, and all seemed much of a muchness.

I reckon it would take up to an hour to copy and paste guidelines from another publisher and tailor to suit the aims of Wedgie Press. Then maybe leave for a day or so, come back and have a review. Allow another hour for this. Following this initial review it might be an idea to ask a contact in the publishing world to run their eye over the draft guidelines – allow one working week – following which it should take no more than an hour to finalise and upload to the website.

So, if we just ignore the fact that the guidelines have been ‘coming soon’ for several months, I suggest that once the long run, naked swim, selfies and indulgent self-congratulatory SM posts have been completed for today, if Ms Fraser does step 1 this afternoon the guidelines should be on the website by close of play on Saturday 29 July.

Maybe even sooner if Ms Fraser is strict with herself and does not allow herself any more day drinking in London until the guidelines are uploaded.

You’re welcome!

Leaving plenty of time to provide an explanation as to why some elements of the 'truthful' memoir were provably untrue. We've still not got to the bottom of why somebody can make money out of published untruths. Why is it so difficult to address this question?

Agreed!

Probably her huge son's bestie !!

“ADHD definitely.” Why? I have ADHD, I don’t behave anything like her. Neither do others on this group with the same diagnosis. She lies, cheats and destroys.

🤢. I’m so gutted I’m blocked! I love the rose petal canapés pics. 🙄 I’m waiting for the headteacher to knock on my door and tell me off for….. err?

Except for when I was pregnant or had a newborn, during the time I still believed I was the first and only woman ever to have a baby 😂😮‍💨, I’ve only posted photos of myself that make fun of me. I either appear disheveled or in compromising situations, never aiming to attract responses like ‘Oh, but you look stunning.’ My university friends or my extended family comment, ‘Well, nothing has changed then!’

I posted my last photo on social media before Covid. I became disengaged with it all when I saw ‘those types’ still trying to outdo each other, excelling in lava bread baking while I was using felt tips to cover my greys so I looked ok front-on on work calls!

How did I get to know of LF?

My neighbour (not parent at same school) pointed out some posts that she and her husband realised were from the ‘woman up the road’ and they explained ‘a lot’. If you scream and shout publicly, you scream and shout and people hear and yes, gossip/have concerns for any children that might be compromised.

Equally, if you post very publicly with no security filters, people are going to see them. Isn’t this the point of having no security? She’s even spoken about the perils of exposing children on social media and not being present, on TV!

It was the “oh look at this photo my 5 year old took of me, naked, save for a hat” that got the ‘breakout parents’ WhatsApp pinging! No one but no one is wrapped in morning shards of light in a nymph like position at 6am, save for her. We’re here for the tips on how to be stunning and dunning while trying to make ends meet as the cost of living crisis hits ever harder.

If she ever asks others about themselves, she will realise that only a few families from school are going on holidays this summer and if they are, it’s usually to visit friends or family or at most, it’s their only holiday for the year. It’s not the fifth or more holidays they still have planned.

This school catchment area once had a relatively comfortable disposable income, but not anymore. Behind closed doors, many families are facing financial difficulties. How do I know this? I’m one of them and I speak empathically with others. Two full time working parents in each household. WTF does she get her spare money from?

From Tattle…

Everyone dislikes growing older. Aside from fading looks, it brings health issues, employment challenges and the inevitability of losing loved ones.

That's why people have been making £millions since the beginning of time by selling creams, potions and cosmetic procedures that promise eternal youth. The elixir of youth stands as the most lucrative scam ever devised. Pretending one is happy to grow old is the most ludicrous scam ever peddled.

With age comes wisdom, one would hope, but this wisdom has to be applied.

🤬

I don’t know if I do though, to be honest. I’m better looking, fitter got more money got more time for the lovely family to share it with. I’m okay with my face looking different

What's happened to Edgeway Press then? Has it gone the same way as Headcase already?!

The trolls did it!

@Raffington55 Time will tell ……

I mean, there’s been the naming of the company; the incorporation with Companies House (with added bonus of a high-five from postie when the incorporation documents were hand delivered); the sponsors (Missing Bean and Gulp Fiction, collectively known as Missing Fiction); one podcast recorded in some iconic room above a book shop; the all-important choosing of the paper and THE LAUNCH PARTY.

I’m not sure what else you expected in the last three months, because I think we have been told in no uncertain terms not to be impatient and that things will be done when they are DONE, they will be ready when they are READY, and they will be communicated when they are COMMUNICATED. OK?

That awful little thing LIFE has now got in the way of progress …… ‘LIFE’ including getting up, posing for photos, making packed lunches, the school run, running, taking selfies, winning, taking selfies, entering ‘races’, not running races, running in the heat, taking selfies, running in the rain, taking selfies, swimming in lakes, taking selfies, swimming in private pools, taking selfies, swimming in bikinis, pulling up bikini bottoms, taking selfies, naked swimming, taking selfies, coffees with FRIENDS, day-drinking with FRIENDS, drinking with mum-FRIENDS, bitching with mum-FRIENDS, drinking by the RIVER, posting selfies on SM, gushing about MEEE, FRIENDS, FUN, HAPPINESS, conflating honest questions about a ‘memoir’ with trolling, getting cross, ranting and swearing on SM, issuing vague threats about police involvement, doing school pick-up, more selfies, more SM posting, more drinking. Then bed, sleep and start it all again.

WHERE does one have time in all of that to do an honest day’s work?

I mean, honestly, @Raffington55 . You do have high expectations, don’t you?

(Incidentally, wouldn’t Missing Fiction have been a more apt name than Wedgie Press?)