The Great Post Office Scandal is go
I’m delighted to tell you that I have signed a deal with Bath Publishing to write a book about the Post Office Horizon scandal. It has a working title (see above), and it will be available in hardback in Autumn 2021.
Bath Publishing are brilliant. They have been following this story for a while so when I suggested they might like to help me turn it into a book, they kindly agreed.
Despite the fact this story has been described in parliament as “one of the worst disasters in public life since the contaminated blood scandal” and something which “may well be the largest miscarriage of justice in our history” most people in the UK don’t know anything about it. A book, if successful, might change that.
Money
And so I have started a crowdfunding campaign. If you can, and want to, I would be grateful if you would consider contributing.
Your donation will help me cover the forthcoming Court of Appeal hearings, the Williams inquiry and the other legal processes which either are at work (the criminal investigation into two Fujitsu employees) or soon will be (claims against the Post Office for malicious prosecution).
As part of the crowdfunding options there are several opportunities to buy the forthcoming book in hardback or ebook format. If I have sufficient mastery of the Dark Arts, (and I think sometimes newsletter mailouts strip out this sort of thing) you may be able to see the options at the bottom of this email. If you can’t see anything, this link will take you to an explanatory page and you can make your donation from there.
Platforms
The site I am using to collect donations is the same as before, so you should be familiar with it if you have donated to join the secret emailers in the last year or so. I have reconfigured it to give you some more information and to collect shipping addresses if you choose the hardback book option.
Although I have tested it and it is secure and does work, I know a few people have had problems in the past.
The platforms (Ecwid and PayPal, if you’re interested) are a bit too clever for their own good sometimes, particularly when you’re trying to fill your details out. Look out for a US flag above the address form. The flag is actually a drop-down menu. If you live in the UK, as 99% of the readers of this secret email do, click on the US flag, and lo, a Union Jack* appears. Click on that, and you are away.
I am quite sure you will want to have a good read of the donation options. Please also have a little play if you like, and let me know what you think. I have complete control of the back end process, so if you manage to donate £1000 by mistake whilst playing around, I can refund you immediately!
This is my last weekend of freedom before I start knuckling down to write the book, which I will do whilst covering all the shenanigans at the Court of Appeal, etc.
HM Queen
Incidentally, if you are thinking you have already donated enough money and just want to buy the book, then please do not donate to this crowdfunding campaign and wait until April/May when the book will become available at its full retail price of £25 (+ £3.50 UK shipping) or £8.99 for the ebook.
There are currently no options to buy the book directly right now – it is bound up in crowdfunding as an incentive to encourage donations.
Thanks again, as ever, for your ongoing support of my work. And please only donate if you want to and can afford it. Many of you have been ridiculously generous already.
If you are at all hesitant, wait until the book’s direct pre-sale period starts and consider your options then. As I have said in this blog post, I am deeply aware I can only ask people to keep going to the well so many times.
If you have any queries about anything, just hit reply to this email or email me directly at any time: nick@nickwallis.com
Have another fine lockdown weekend. I will be eating pizza (a family Friday lockdown tradition), and going for a walk with a good friend who also happens to be an audio book producer. He reckons the Great Post Office Trial could be a good audio book, although it would be about 19 hours long!
By the way, did you see HM Queen chatting about vaccines on the news last night? Amazing to a) to see her in a virtual meeting room and b) to hear her nattering away, natural as you like, with a bunch of medics.
These are unusual times, to say the least.
Thanks again for all your support.
Nick