tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post115995117005534447..comments2024-03-28T13:18:28.238+00:00Comments on Grumpy Old Bookman: Kathy O'Beirne updateMichael Allenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11338398159818400930noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-17717111364010664152010-07-04T00:57:35.496+01:002010-07-04T00:57:35.496+01:00hi people
wow i didn't notice it...
i think t...hi people<br />wow i didn't notice it...<br /><br />i think this spot is so interesting!home for sale costa ricahttp://www.costa-ricarealestate.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-86444788365970275662008-10-23T12:10:00.000+01:002008-10-23T12:10:00.000+01:00Many ex Inmates from the Irish Industrial schools ...Many ex Inmates from the Irish Industrial schools and Magdalene laundries are very angry with Kathy O'Beirne, she spent just 6 weeks in a Home when she was 11, and according to herself was very well treated there. Otherwise she has no right to use other peoples stories as her own. Her school records show she was in primary school until over 12 years old, her birth cert and family resemblence show she's 4 years older than she claims, and also is definatly not adopted. Mainstream have published hoaxes before. Apriest she accused of rape was so badly crippled with arthritis he could hardly dress himself. He was cleared of any wrong doings against her...but since he's now dead she can claim what she wants. She's a very cruel evil woman.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1165695085791745282006-12-09T20:11:00.000+00:002006-12-09T20:11:00.000+00:00I have been looking, but failed to find, anything ...I have been looking, but failed to find, anything from anyone who could say 'I knew Kathy and was in one (or more) of the homes with her'. Where are these other inmates, why are they silent, do they exist?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1161424468472740062006-10-21T10:54:00.000+01:002006-10-21T10:54:00.000+01:00Thanks for the link to my site.All these fakers (i...Thanks for the link to my site.<BR/>All these fakers (is that the right word?) should be highlighted for the scammers that they are.<BR/>Hugssss....<BR/>Anya Peters.wanderingScribehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07356939909592243214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1159979086282693762006-10-04T17:24:00.000+01:002006-10-04T17:24:00.000+01:00Interestinger and interestinger.A publisher so pun...Interestinger and interestinger.<BR/><BR/>A publisher so punctilious in making sure the facts are... checked.<BR/><BR/>I do enjoy a good novel.<BR/><BR/>"Every claim I made was put under the microscope."<BR/><BR/>Is that the microscope where they implore you to get your facts right or the microscope where they check for themselves? (M'lud, what more could my client have done?)<BR/><BR/>Isn't this the same thing that happened a little while back to Daniel Dafoe? But in reverse? Were not some readers angry to find out that Crusoe was fiction? Perhaps she's simply a great novelist, creating her characters not from life but in the pages of life itself?<BR/><BR/>Perhaps publishers have found a way to package the author and their family and the rest of life into their products?<BR/><BR/>The 'name' of the very first reviewer of her new book on Amazon is: "I care".<BR/><BR/>So do I, inasmuch as I'd like to know what happens if the books are indeed a crock.<BR/><BR/>Would this be different from shouting 'Fire' in a cinema? Is not the public good, in this particular case, tarnished if the publisher absolves himself of responsibility by imitating rigour? Being implored to get your facts straight sounds more like a scene from a Kirk Douglas movie than an attempt at integrity.<BR/><BR/>Is this the publishing equivalent of the professional foul? Is it a politician explaining why people are dead but it's not their fault?<BR/><BR/>Where on earth will this end? Maybe they've taken a leaf out of the music business's book? For years they had to put up with cranky 'artists' but now they only have to formulate a plan and stick one of thousands into the human variable that is the modern rap artist. (Woops, if I knew what I was talking about I'd use more modern vocabulary than 'rap' - and I'd change my name to F. Diddy while I'm about it.)<BR/><BR/>A novel about an abused child is, well, it's abuse but a biography about an abused child is a surefire hit in the rubberneck market.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1159976392972677212006-10-04T16:39:00.000+01:002006-10-04T16:39:00.000+01:00Messy indeed. So messy it just leaves a really ba...Messy indeed. So messy it just leaves a really bad taste overall.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6656468.post-1159971856520078652006-10-04T15:24:00.000+01:002006-10-04T15:24:00.000+01:00Earlier this year (as some of your readers may rec...Earlier this year (as some of your readers may recall), The Beginning of the End, my memoir of growing up in Belfast, was published by Mainstream – the same Edinburgh-based outfit that gave us Don't Ever Tell, by Kathy O'Beirne.<BR/><BR/>I wrote my book in the spring of 2005 and was pleased to have it accepted for publication. The advance of £1,000 seemed to me a bit on the mean side (who would have thought it?), but Bill Campbell, the managing director, assured me that the book could do very well, perhaps selling as many as 22,000 copies. I remember thinking that 22,000 was an odd figure. Why not 20,000, or 25,000? But the man obviously knew his business.<BR/><BR/>Over the months that followed, I was required to do a great deal of fact-checking. This process was exhaustive and, thus, exhausting. Every claim I made was put under the microscope. How sure was I of this? Who said that? Could claim A be verifed against claim X, 50 pages later? They did not make it easy for me. I was even asked to track down the copyright holders of various snatches of song I had included so that I could pay them hundreds of pounds for the privilege of quoting a line or two lines of something written in 1935, or 1969.<BR/><BR/>Anyway, my point is that Mainstream did not take my assertions for granted. I either put up or shut up: that was the deal.<BR/><BR/>Subsequently, when the book came out, I was a bit dismayed when the company neglected to distribute more than a token number of copies in England, by far the biggest potential market. Worse, the "bulk" of these copies were not delivered until six weeks after publication. Despite the fact that it earned, for the most part, excellent reviews and got serialised in the Sunday Times, and in spite of the fact that I made a successful appearance on Loose Ends, with Ned Sherrin, 90 per cent of the print run of 4,000 was confined to Ireland.<BR/><BR/>I have emailed Mainstream several times recently to protest about this. They have not replied.<BR/><BR/>But for my book it was indeed the beginning of the end.<BR/><BR/>My point, however, issued through gritted teeth, is that I cannot complain about the editing and fact-checking process.<BR/><BR/>If Kathy O'Beirne was put through the same inquisition I was, she will have come out the other side with The Truth imprinted on her like the town's name in a stick of Brighton Rock.<BR/><BR/>Brighton Rock was, of course, a novel.<BR/><BR/>Best wishes, Mr Grumpling. You do us all a service.<BR/><BR/>Walter Ellis<BR/>New YorkAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com