The Great Post Office Cover-Up

Hello!

The news is out formally tomorrow, but I thought it was only right to tell you first: I am proud to announce I have signed a deal with Bath Publishing’s Cinto imprint to write another book about the Post Office scandal. This one is called The Great Post Office Cover-Up. It’s going to come out in the new year, after the Inquiry reports.

I hope it will act as a companion piece to my first book, The Great Post Office Scandal (described as “famous” by Julian Lewis MP in parliament the other day).

In The Great Post Office Cover-Up, using transcripts, interviews, documents I will tell the story from inside the Post Office, Fujitsu and the government, whilst also casting an eye on the developments of the last three years.

Many secret emailers and correspondents have asked when I am going to write another book to cover everything which has happened since TGPOS was published – well, now you have your answer.

Now it’s over to you

To give me some motivation and the potential hope that this is a worthwhile escapade, I would be enormously grateful if you would consider buying a copy of The Great Post Office Cover-Up on pre-sale.

Cinto are going to produce a special limited edition signed hardback as well as a paperback. The paperback will set you back £10 (+ P&P) and the hardback will go for £15 (+ P&P).

These prices will go up when the book is published so please consider buying early and buying often! You will receive your copies on the day of publication.

I am hoping the hardback will become a collector’s item as we do not plan to sell it in shops or go beyond the initial print run.

As before, both Cinto and I will be donating 5% of our income from the book to the Horizon Scandal Fund.

I am going to start writing pretty much as soon as the Inquiry closing statements are finished. If all goes according to plan we’ll send The Great Post Office Cover-Up to print two or three weeks after the Inquiry has reported. And then we’ll get your copy out to you This could be in March, July or this time next year. No one yet knows.

With that in mind, if you feel you can support my endeavours I would be enormously grateful. I promise, in return, to put in your hands a book which covers everything, including the parliamentary hearings, the game-changing TV drama and the compensation debacle.

I will conduct original interviews and dig through the millions of words in evidence which have come to light since the Inquiry began. Throughout the last three decades plenty of people knew bad things were happening, now we know a lot more about who they are, how they interacted and their level of culpability.

Closing statements

As you know, closing statements are going to be heard at the Inquiry tomorrow and Tuesday. Proceedings start at 9.30am on both days. Monday will begin with statements from Subpostmaster representatives, followed by the National Federation of Subpostmasters and UK Government Investments. Tuesday brings the thoughts of the Post Office, Paula Vennells, Fujitsu, Gareth Jenkins and the Department for Business and Trade. Most people get around an hour each.

I’ll be there both days, live-tweeting and trying to grab interviews with various people whilst also fulfilling a few media commitments and attempting to find the time to write up proceedings for the Post Office Scandal website. I do hope you will be able to dip into some element of the hearings, whether you follow it online, in person or via the news media or my tweets.

I’ll be back on Wednesday with another newsletter to point you towards anything you might have missed and to re-flog the book! It’s going to be a fun few months.

Very best

Nick