Madeleine McCann: Reading Amaral’s Book, Free Speech And Elvis
MADDIE WATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann, Kate McCann and Gerry McCann…
THE GUARDIAN: “On the front line in the search for Maddie - Gonçalo Amaral’s intriguing memoir of the Madeleine McCann case offers no solution but reveals a man obsessed by the investigation”
Ned Temko is reading Amaral’s book:
It is a shame that this revealing memoir from Gonçalo Amaral, the police chief who ran the Madeleine McCann investigation until he was unceremoniously fired last year, has not been published in English…
Indeed it is. And a disappointment that no British paper has sought to serialise the work. Aren’t we interested in what the copper thinks? Or are we too scared to publish it? What of free speech, then?
Wouldn’t any reader of sound mind dismiss slights against the McCanns’ involvement?
Within minutes of its appearance in Portuguese bookshops, the McCanns’ spokesman let it be known their lawyers would be giving it a thorough read, with an eye to the kind of libel action that ended up costing the Express group £500,000 earlier this year. And that was before the Portuguese authorities finally cleared the couple last month of any suspicion.
We’ve been scared off. But:
Surely it won’t be long before enterprising translators feed the juicier bits to an online conspiracy community that, in the 15 months since the cherubic three-year-old went missing from Praia da Luz, has elevated Madeleine into something close to a new Elvis.
Has she been seen in America?
Or in the phrase Amaral prefers to use, with no evident trace of irony, in the book’s acknowledgements: ‘cybernauts and bloggers who have been defending the cause of truth and justice.’
Or just proclaiming themselves “pro” or “anti” McCann, as if that helps:
Yet even for those of us who happen to believe that Elvis is no more, the book offers a page-turning compendium of unexplained puzzles - as are so frequently found in wide-ranging, complex investigations.
LIVERPOOL ECHO: “Why we shouldn’t be frightened of the big, wide world”
Fiona Ennys plays Tabloid Bingo! Eyes down…
CATHERINE Mullany’s murder on the ‘paradise’ island of Antigua was awful and tragic.
Tick!
People like me who, until the expansion of package travel in the 1960s never saw further than perhaps Blackpool or Scarborough, now have the opportunity to visit supremely exotic destinations like Asia and Africa.
And..?
And it’s fantastic.
Phew! Go on…
It’s so easy to be lulled into a false sense of security when you are on holiday; the family of little Madeleine McCann know, only too painfully, about that.
Tick!
THE SUNDAY TIMES: “Big Yin on a voyage to explore big waste - Billy Connolly is recreating the Arctic journeys of two great pioneers for ITV”
ITV approached Connolly as part of its drive to get more factual “big access pieces” for the 8pm-9pm slots following on from the success of documentaries on JK Rowling and Madeleine McCann.
That’s entertainment (sha-la-la-la-la)…
Posted: 3rd, August 2008 | In: Broadsheets, Madeleine McCann, Tabloids Comments (284) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
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August 3rd, 2008 at 5:06 pm
whoops
Are you referring to those high voltage ones?
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Carmen
I thought Duncan was coming to your rescue ? He”s been on the Merlot again I bet.
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
Crikey by my reckoning Carmen is 97-Now i don’t want anyone to say anything that might give Carmen a nasty shock-Carmen do you have a Stanna stairlift?
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:02 pm
al Says:
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Karen
I bet your”e having a great time if you are seeing all the shows!!! There was a T.V.
excerpt the other night from a Fringe theatre group performing scenes from their
play……..I couldn”t understand the meaning at all!!!!!!
————
I wouldn’t hold too much hope for Karen either to be honest.
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Sorry, I didnt realise……..
August 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Karen
I bet your”e having a great time if you are seeing all the shows!!! There was a T.V.
excerpt the other night from a Fringe theatre group performing scenes from their
play……..I couldn”t understand the meaning at all!!!!!!
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Veritable Quandary-yes the same cat -I didn’t just run round and round the cat though as that would have been really silly.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Vq
You shouldn’t have called him Asaul.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:57 pm
armen Says:
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
She might be ever so slightly demented now, but you can’t have everything.
————–
Don’t despair, at least you’ve got your youth.
M&A
Artemis
But whose youth did she acquire?
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
VW
I”m going to the U.S. in November, New York and New Jersey, nowhere near you
of course or I”d have popped in for a Coffee!!!!!
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm
whoops, was it the same cat, were you running in circles?
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Lordy has Carmen been at the bottle again-I saw a dead cat 4 times this morning-had to keep going past the poor mite while out running.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:49 pm
Duncan, seriously?
(Saul is still pissed at me for saying something rude to him . . . can you be the intermediary?)
Does anyone have suggestion for a cheap device I can purchase to keep me in touch?
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I’m afraid Vq, I don’t hold any hope for you.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
VQ
2 week field course, intermittent internet access. Hhmm!
In that case you might want to be the first to take advantage of a new venture Saul has been working on - specially trained homing pigeons. Release them any where in the wild and they will make their way back to Anorak Towers carrying any missive you want posted in Opinions. (As a regular poster you can have a pair of them for only 10 zloty !!!)
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Garth Says to m.e.
How do you have the presence of a corpse in your appartment with a missing child and no evidence of an abduction…….
AND NOT GET CHARGED?
———————–
Obviously a hypothetical question m’lud yes?
But in any case, i think the answer would be to contact a police force who dont hold too good a reputation for collecting evidence.
Hope this helps.
——
Garth, were my higher hopes for you in vain?
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Karen Says:
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
My IP address said I was in Yorkshire!
(I’m not).
–
I am hoping mine is inaccurate too, but the last reading was pretty close to home!
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:40 pm
My comment was directed at Vq, what damaging infomation, have you informed the Portuguese of your discovery. Or is it just your forte to disparage without a shred of evidence.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Val
I’m helping out at the Edinburgh Festival. I get around.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
m.e Says:
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
How do you have the presence of a corpse in your appartment with a missing child and no evidence of an abduction…….
AND NOT GET CHARGED?
———————–
Obviously a hypothetical question m’lud yes?
But in any case, i think the answer would be to contact a police force who dont hold too good a reputation for collecting evidence.
Hope this helps.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Duncan R Says:
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
VQ
I rather think Rasputin’s comment re lack of evidence was directed not to you but to the poster ‘M.E’ ?
—
sorry missed that . . . apologies R and ME.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
My IP address said I was in Yorkshire!
(I’m not).
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
Duncan , It is true. I do travel a lot. Truly, it is my job description.
I am departing this week on a two week field course, and I am pained greatly about having only intermittant internet access, at best. But it might break my addictions.
But I am sure with my IP address you can pinpoint me more precisely.
I am who I am, mostly.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:33 pm
VW
Just a thought, you asked where I lived and I told you…….yet you havn”t told me where you live!!!!!!! Not a spy for the McCanns are you, ready to track me down?
Seriously, Kate was interviewed from 11am for reportedly 11 hrs, Gerry the next day
but it was still daylight when he emerged so obviously Kate was the main target. Gerry
looked absolutely shell-shocked when he came out of the Police Station which makes
me think the PJ had more evidence than the McCanns thought.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
VQ
I rather think Rasputin’s comment re lack of evidence was directed not to you but to the poster ‘M.E’ ?
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Rasputin
Maybrick did it!!!!
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Exactly, you have nothing, yet you continue to villify a couple, who have been cleared as suspects.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Rasputin Says:
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:19 pm
“There is simply too much damaging infomation against the McCanns and their pact-members. My belief and my hope is that they will face public disgrace.”
Thats funny, must check up on who are arguido’s and what the AG said.
–
R you are hanging slim hopes on a technicality.
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm
VQ Says
I am south of . . . . .
++++++++++++++++++++
Spread yourself around a bit don’t you
August 3rd, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Never said I have evidence. I am just a reader who can absorb information.
You are in the short end of the stick, R.