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Old 30-01-2019, 02:42
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raven raven is offline
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Delayed? Last minute legal checks? Editing seems to have gone out the window these days so maybe...Forever delayed??

I did some sleuthing around the site at silly a.m. trying to work out what name she had posted under ....could’ve just saved it till less silly a.m.

Her posts do seem in hindsight to be a lot of fact checking/source searching for her book and some serious spite towards the remaining members of the band who were his friends from childhood....something which seems to have slipped past her. It seems reasonable to assume that none of the band were asked if they would like to be interviewed for the book? Which suggests she didn’t approach the book with the objectivity , open-mindedness and curiosity you would expect a biographer to have

I was disappointed to come across her posts here because The Times review had really whetted my appetite. Drawing on the Wales Online piece Rachel Edwards has not just provided a foreword she’s provided access to Richey’s personal archive and of course their family history. Also, drawing on that piece, access to many people Richey knew but are not maybe known of outside his circle and interestingly who wouldn’t speak without Rachel’s approval. Sometimes, according to the author, without being alongside Rachel when they were interviewed. It is an interesting juxtaposition of writing a biography when your subject is no longer around but their immediate family and friends are. A biographer wants and needs access to those who were closest and likely their permission to see any private papers and materials but it’s a difficult position because you can blind your objectivity if you feel beholden or if you become close friends...maybe more if you become friends? I don’t mean the writer is necessarily manipulated/controlled but I think she may have lost her objectivity in that closeness. She should of course have listened to Rachel Edward’s opinions on the band, distinguishing as well maybe between her feelings about ‘the band’ as possibly being distinct from the individuals within it but kept her own opinions out...it’s not your story you’re telling...Focus on the book as biography and exploration of what may have happened . Maybe it needed a more experienced writer/journalist?
Maybe Rachel felt she needed a friend to write it. You can see it’s hard though as it gives over your control. I can see why she’d be so fiercely controlling over who has access to his archives, who they get to talk to, wanting her brother’s memory to be reflected in the book but a writer can’t do that if they get too close. The portrait risks still being seen through a glass darkly albeit a different glass so to clumsily speak

I wouldn’t link her views on the band to those of SHR as expressed here on the forum. The Times review said Rachel Edward’s anger at the band was hard to understand but in the few interviews she’s given she’s never expressed her unease with them in any way that reflects the postings on here by SHR....again tie yourself too closely to someone’s (Rachel’s) corner doesn’t mean you get the green card to trample over people’s feelings. This is where the loss of objectivity comes in again I feel.
Drawing from what she clearly has said Rachel Edwards wanted the book to tell her brother’s full story and not the one of tragic rock star and to maybe lay out his archive in front of fresh eyes. (I wonder if she ever feels anger or feels able to say so? I think I would and not feeling able to say so would have all kinds of effects ....none good). To re-visit and see if there are missed clues, to get some discussion going because not knowing is unbearable clearly. Therefore the writer slagging the band is a distraction because as seen here that ends up being the story instead of looking again at what may have happened

I don’t think the title referring to Richey Manic or the cover is a problem in my wee umble. The picture on the jacket I’ve seen is just of his face and not the wounded chest and as for ‘Richey Manic’ – the cover is the rock star – you read the book to find the man....I like that. Here’s the image now read on for it to be contradicted

I will still read it (take one for the teamin spite of realising the perspective will be skewered. I’m hoping there will be some insight into the police procedure at the time. If ‘procedure’ is the right word. I remember an interview with Rachel Edwards talking about the police searching the family home not long after he’d been reported missing and her impression that in the immediate aftermath there seemed the belief that it was all a ‘stunt’ the family were in on for publicity for the band (You can see why she’s had it with the rock star image... and why that may have felt more hindrance than help)
Also hoping for more insight into the handling of his case with regards to his mental state and what if any help was available to him prior to his disappearance. I know obviously that he went into hospital following what this book appears to finally confirm to be a suicide attempt but it didn’t seem to provide much help nor support....I’m not sure a great deal has changed over the years but to me it seemed to be the fact that he was vulnerable and in need of help, like many others I’m sure, that got overlooked in the story of his disappearance and maybe took too much of the attention away from the shoddy state of mental health services and of the police response. Maybe some wider context would be interesting into how approaches have changed if they have changed over the years since but I don't think this is the book to explore that

I’m hoping the book will further explore the few facts that are known regarding the few months and days prior to his disappearance though they seem few and tentative. The ‘Vivian’ mystery seems insubstantial unless the book can explain how they know she existed – hotel reception could have confirmed if so we have a good fact – how the hell anyone knows what was said in the room between them? Unless of course that’s from a police statement at the time. Another good fact. What seems ridiculous might make more sense in the book.
The postman on the bridge is another of those...just enough there to be credible but lacking in detail you can independently verify. He says he did report it to the nightwatchman but has no idea if it was logged/followed up on. If it was the early hours of Feb 1st it would fit but again why didn’t he call the police once the press attention followed 2 weeks on? Would night security not have done anything? It was a known suicide spot? What would happen in a similar situation today? He can’t have jumped that night though as it doesn’t fit with the evidence from his car so...just one of those if only someone could have spoken to him maybe things would have panned out differently but
The kibbutz idea doesn’t sound that way out. He may have played with such an idea. He seemed to be looking to a future in his last interview and aspects of the kibbutz would surely have chimed with his political views but where’s the evidence? And he would have needed his passport. The notion of one of the writers popping in for a haircut and the hairdresser saying ‘Course he’s joined a kibbutz!’ makes me suspect I’ll need vodka

I worry they’ll have thrown every theory into the book and it will be so tangled the only discussion that will bob up will be more crackpot theories rather than anything sensible emerging. If it just left you with a better understanding of the issues concerning missing people and their families that would be something especially around mental health support and other available support and the practical procedures for families left behind

Silly a.m. again...
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