Order online Excerpts Introduction: the story of the story Chapter One The Newspaper T Related essays ‘Unbalanced and misleading’: Richard Scorer on The Secret of Bryn Estyn External links   Comment is free: Brendan O'Neill on our paedophile panic		The Secret of Bryn Estyn The Making of a Modern Witch Hunt by RICHARD WEBSTER SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE The Orwell Press Hardcover 2005 Paperback due 2007 READERS WRITE: 'T has got hold of the book before me and is well into it. He says it’s gripping and frightening and obviously courageous. Will read it ASAP myself! Good luck.'  A 'Thinking about the whole narrative, I suppose that the part I found most shocking of all was not the role played by X, nor by the police; not even the role of the wretchedly self-seeking Y.  The real villain of the piece as I saw it was Waterhouse …   Waterhouse's intervention in Jennings' cross-examination of Waite was chilling in its absolute determination to prevent the truth from coming out in the courtroom, despite the whole judicial process having been set up supposedly 'to uncover the truth' . The whole episode could have come straight out of a Stalinist show trial of the 40s and 50s.'   R 'I have completed reading your brilliant book and am going to read it again . . .  It’s an astonishing book.'  S 'I do hope someone has the courage to run reviews. Have you had any personal threats? I thought it was an impressive and scholarly book, very badly needed. I literally felt ill on reading about some of the outcomes.'  Professor X 'I have just finished reading it. Absolutely superb, I shall now read it again. What a masterly job you have done!'  E 'The book is excellent!  I must say I had assumed it would be very informative but rather like a text book. Not at all. I found it compelling reading and difficult to put down. Well done and thank you.'  J 'Thought I'd let you know that I was not really looking forward to reading 700 odd "dry, dusty" pages. But last night I couldn't put the book down till 2.30am and was again reading it at 6am!!  Riveting stuff.'   R   ''We are back from holiday in Spain [and] we took the Bryn Estyn book with us. S. was quiet for four days. He just couldn't put it down! Unbelievable yet horribly believable ... I am sorry that we haven't read it before but it came at a time when things were pretty awful ... We knew we would have space in October. I hate flying, but the return journey wasn't long enough I just want to read it in every spare moment.' 'This is a book that MUST be read and I would hope that it will feature in libraries and discussions in the National Police College, Bramshill, Police Training Centres, universities, law schools, Houses of Parliament, social services departments etc etc. . . .   . I feel that in writing this book you have performed a valuable public service. I wish it booming sales.'  R 'Your book has altered my perceptions. I was awed by the sustained level force of your argument - and I enjoyed it . . . It’s a great book'   B   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TOP