Hello

The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry has today announced that the first part of Sir Wyn Williams’ report will be published at high noon on Tuesday 8 July.

Volume 1 of Sir Wyn’s report focuses on Compensation and Human Impact. Whilst I suspect it will not tell us anything new (we know the Post Office was awful to people and there have been enormous problems with compensation), Sir Wyn may make recommendations about the way the current schemes are structured and he could also decide he is going to watch what’s happening with Subpostmaster compensation until the matter is dealt with, at least to his satisfaction. He may also choose to make recommendations on how to provide compensation to victims of other scandals better in future.

The publication event being arranged for the report is open to accredited media, core participants and invited guests. At 12.30pm Sir Wyn will make a live statement, which will be streamed on the Inquiry’s YouTube channel.

Media will get the report a couple (hopefully three) hours before it is published in order to read it, find the news lines and file some copy/prep for lunchtime news lives. Core participants will see it in advance of that, but I don’t expect any leaks.

What we currently don’t know is whether Sir Wyn will be physically present to deliver the report or whether he will give interviews afterwards. If I were a betting man I would put money on the former but not on the latter. I’ve asked the Inquiry press office for more information.

What about the rest of it?

We don’t know. Last time I speculated that calling his findings on Redress and Human Impact “Volume 1”, opened the door for several iterations of the Inquiry report, but today we were told:

“Findings for the remaining phases, as well as overall recommendations, will follow in a final report.”

A single final report? Looks like it. When? “In due course.”

That does not suggest before summer.

Lawyer threatens legal action against Postmaster client

I recently published a story about Nick Gould (right) on my website. Nick used to be former Subpostmaster Seema Misra’s lawyer. No longer. He is threatening to sue her over an unpaid bill. The story was picked up by legal website Roll On Friday and I know the BBC are trying to do something.

Although the Solicitors Regulation Authority won’t officially confirm that Gould is being investigated for his actions, I have it from three very good sources that he is.

I also understand that the barrister who suggested I was somehow attempting to blackmail Gould’s firm by asking them questions about this story been referred to the Bar Standards Board by another person the barrister, by his own admission, felt “obliged to warn off“.

I’m sorry I didn’t write a newsletter about it at the time. If you want to get every blog post I write sent direct to your inbox, got to the front page of Post Office Scandal website and put your email address in the sign-up box and you’ll never miss a thing. Not that I’m writing much up there at the moment.

Signed, Sealed, Destroyed and Published!

I am absolutely delighted to tell you that Scott Darlington (below) has become the second Subpostmaster to publish a book about their experiences at the hands of the Post Office.

I read Signed, Sealed, Destroyed in draft form a few weeks back, and I am pleased to report it’s a belter. I’ve known Scott years, but I learned loads and I am just so impressed at his ability to get this book out and into the wild.

I have bought the paperback from Amazon (see above – the cover isn’t that red btw – I’m sitting by a neon sign in a pub – see below) and I must admit to being deeply impressed by the print quality, typesetting and editing. I only started reading the finished version today, but if it’s not too different from the version I read on Word a few weeks back, you are in for a treat.

Scott writes really well and the whole thing bounces along until you get to just how badly Scott was treated by the Post Office. At that point you find yourself fizzing with anger at the incompetence and unaccountability of these people.

Scott’s book is good value (£9.19 for the paperback, £3.99 for the kindle version), it’s ridiculously well-produced and it’s available on Amazon as a kindle download or a paperback. Buy it here.

What about your book, Wallis?

Again, I am glad you asked. Unless Sir Wyn’s report lands in early September it looks like The Great Post Office Cover Up will not be out until next year. This is to do with publishing cycles, especially in the run up to Christmas. Christmas titles tend to be published in the first couple of weeks of September in order to allow the marketing/PR/retail machines to create/asses the buzz and order accordingly.

Any book published later than that (as we found with The Great Post Office Scandal) is at a disadvantage as shops have put down their money, planned their Christmas strategy and don’t really want to make room on their shelves for stock they didn’t know about.

We have sold, to date, around 20,000 copies of The Great Post Office Scandal (thank you all so very much) and we know that around 15 million people watched the subsequent ITV drama. We want to give 14,980,000 people (who might not quite be as committed as the average reader of this newsletter) the best possible chance of finding and buying my second book on this subject.

In terms of progress we are aiming for a book which is around 110,000 words long. I have currently written 81,000 words. I started work on 1 Jan, which means that if I get another 9,000 words done by the end of June (possible), I will hit 120,000 words by the end of September and then start the redrafting process to get the book down to 110,000 words which make sense. Then we have to get it edited, proofed, typeset, legalled and scheduled before we even get to hit publish. I am sorry it is taking so long, but I promise you it’ll be worth it.

I’m really enjoying putting it together and really homing in on the narrative drivers of this story. I’ve already had cause to write to one key player who wasn’t asked at the Inquiry about what I consider to be a really significant piece of evidence and their part in the cover up. And I’ve got some exclusive interviews lined up too!

I am (still) writing a new book about the Post Office scandal called The Great Post Office Cover-Up. You can put your money down now for a copy which will arrive after Sir Wyn Williams’ final report. Buying a pre-publication copy of the hardback (£15 + P&P) or paperback (£10 + P&P) will help support an independent publisher and offer you the opportunity to join my secret email mailing list. For more info about the book, click here!