News about Sarah Summers and Phoenix Publications

[ProfJoPhoenix]

Dear all

It gives me ENORMOUS pleasure to let you know that early in 2027, Phoenix Publications will be publishing Sarah Summers memoir (called Being a girl and other dangerous things).

@iamsarah has had an extraordinary life and write beautifully.

Please spread the word far and wide and please visit Phoenix Publications Ltd website for updates and news of how to pre-order.

The book is a blinder!

Best
Jo Phoenix

I haven’t mistaken you for somebody else. The only way that your denial can be verified would be if, as I said at the beginning, you came clean about your various identities.

The change of persona also meant that women contributing to the crowdfund didn’t know that the wife of the crowdfundee was a TRA, which had they known, may have caused them to have concerns about the handling of their personal information.

Tinsel you obviously have no idea how crowd justice works. I had absolutely no control it was all managed by my legal team. I had no access to anyone’s personal data and I could only see who they were if they chose to share their name publicly.

For me, it isnt that she had a change of mind, as Tinsel said, she had different personalities here at the same time.

Same. And it's a massive testament to the women here that they sat on their hands.

That at least is good to know. If women had known your other persona you would have needed to make that clear, much earlier.

This is where you are categorically wrong. Please feel free to check with MNHQ because this is not a fair accusation.

if I emailed HQ and said are all these usernames the same person, I think we both know they'd tell me to go well in no uncertain terms.

It may be morally wrong but I don’t think it’s against MN talk guidelines. Posters here do abuse name changing, once they feel the jig is up with one persona and they need to change in order to fool the same people into engaging with them again.

If it's true, though, it's a special level of morally wrong to solicit money from women one has been abusive to under another hat. I imagine several people wouldn't have donated.

Right well let’s resolve this because soliciting money from women I’ve abused is a horrible accusation and definitely not true but equally I don’t want to post my entire username history on here because I’ve name changed a few times to get advice about different stuff without it being identifying.

If anyone wants to DM me the usernames you think I am I can send a screen shot of my username history and we can get this cleared up.

Very well said.

I had no idea about this controversy and have happily supported Sarah's cause in the past. I don't know who the previous persona was & I'm not particularly interested.

Perhaps, armed with the facts, I might have still donated because it is still important to campaign for SSS and I do think there's no stronger advocate than a convert.

But I am a big fan of making informed choices. It appears that wasn't allowed to happen here. Certainly there was a lack of transparency.

Wow. Look away for 5 minutes and look what erupts.

As her publisher, I am going to wade in with 2 comments. There are many reasons for publishing a memoir anonymously. The poiny of a memoir is not a celebration or otherwise of an individual, it is that the story speaks to wider context and to many other people.

But more than anything else I know the contents and I would strongly encourage all of you to buy the book once it is out and make up your own minds.

Anyhow that is all from me.

Jo

Jo, will I be able to order the book through my local independent bookshop? I always like the opportunity to highlight the potential demand for GC books to them - plus they run the local literature festival…..

We understand the need for the memoir to be published anonymously.

The issue is the duplicity not publishing a book anonymously.

Please stop and think before you continue to attack someone you don’t know - please keep your anger directed at male attackers and have some empathy here! The real truth is never pure and rarely simple! I stand with @IamSarahxx

If nobody is allowed to criticise people they don’t know, mumsnet will grind to a halt.

Indeed.

And anyone who publishes a book should be prepared for scrutiny.

As Lang used to say "no sacred castes."

It is very fucking cheeky to advertise a new book including the people you used to berate, to the people you used to berate!

But those of us that used to be berated now need to shut up about it?

It’s also very cheeky to be mistaken and fail to acknowledge this as a possibility. I always understand I may be wrong but agree with Jo and perhaps it’s best to read the book of a survivor first before casting the first stone! But hey enjoy your continued perfection x

I don't recall being berated, so can't speak from that position other than to say that I agree Tinsel was right to raise it. There's no reason why concerns like this should be censored, even in the context of a sensitive discussion.

I'm a fairly sporadic poster but have been here long enough to know what an agressively censorious environment the FWR boards have been because of the TRA, when the boards split, the introduction of the 'three strikes' rule, and when people and posts were summarily banned for stating the bleeding obvious.

I did crowd-fund Sarah. I would still do so now, knowing what I know in retrospect, and because taking on Sussex in those circumstances required a huge amount of courage. I know that's easy for me to say when to the best of my knowledge I wasn't on the receiving end. But there are women here who have done a great deal of good for other women - including Tinsel - and Sarah's case against Sussex did contribute to fighting against the wholesale assault on women's rights that many of us here oppose.

I'm pleased to know from @IamSarah that donations are not traceable back to their donors. If I'd thought they were, this would have affected my decision to donate.

Scrutinise away. As I said before I’m very happy to DM anyone my list of previous usernames.

You might find some triggering threads about rape but you will mainly find me discussing endometriosis, knee pain, peri menopause and when Sarah Lancashire is next on the telly. Knock yourselves out.

Thank you Serafinas for contributing to the crowd fund 🌺

I can recall berating women on here prior to 2021 which I am very embarrassed about and for which I apologise. I acknowledged the error of my ways then and I do now.

I admit I’m like one of those annoying ex-smokers who go on about how dreadful smoking is. I’m certainly not perfect, in fact I’m extremely flawed.

I’m not duplicitous though. I will admit if I’ve done something wrong but I haven’t posted on here simultaneously using multiple names. I certainly haven’t berated women using one name and asked them to contribute to a crowd funder using another. That is just not true.

I don't know who Sarah posted as previously (I could have a wild guess but not confident it's correct) but I am genuinely heartened that she has re-evaluated her position to the point of fighting this awful battle.

I would be interested to hear more about her thought processes, but completely understand why no-one wants to expose usernames that might be used to dox etc.