WHY I BELIEVE MY MOTHER KNEW MICHEL PRIGENT, ALTHOUGH IT WOULD MAKE ME VERY HAPPY IF SHE HADN'T….

Some years ago in an interview with Charlotte Cooper I mentioned that Michel Prigent had known my mother. This was an aside; it is not a matter of any importance to me. Thus when Prigent and his chum David Black issued statements that in effect claimed I was lying about this, I couldn’t be bothered to respond. It still didn't seem worth reacting when these statements were handed out as a stapled together and poorly photocopied leaflet prior to a talk I did at the Conway Hall in London on 10 May 2008. I'm used to Prigent, Black and their former chums at Green Anarchist and associates such as Larry O’Hara, picketing and threatening to disrupt public events I participate in. On occasion these buffoons have failed to show after issuing a statement announcing they planned to picket an event I was involved in, on others Prigent has travelled as far as Manchester to 'protest' against me. However, when supporters of the Nazi sympathetic neo-folk subculture take up Prigent and Black's drivel in a ridiculous attempt to discredit my exposure of their idols as active fascists, it becomes necessary to respond, even if there isn’t anyone outside the far-Right and a handful of its fellow travellers who would take anything this pair have to say seriously. (Note: while I won't link directly to people who I consider to be scum, anyone who really wishes to see the relevant pages will find them easily enough by doing a search).

To demonstrate I wasn't lying when I said my mother knew Michel Prigent, I do not have to prove that she was actually acquainted with him. All I need to do is establish that I believed what I was saying to be true at the time I said it (a lie is a deliberate untruth and is thus distinct from an error; and unlike Black and Prigent when I discover I've made a mistake I'm happy to correct it). The reason I believed (and in fact still believe) Prigent knew my mother is because my auntie (Maggie Mathias) told me the two of them were friends. This particular auntie was my mother's closest sibling (both in terms of age and intimacy), and she knew more about my mother than anyone else in our family. When I visited my auntie in south Wales in the summer of 2002 she gave me various possessions of my mother's including her diary and address book. My auntie also gave me an address book and various other papers that she said had belonged to Michel Prigent (his name was on the former item and there is a plethora of evidence within it - ranging from the handwriting to the contacts it contained - to support the contention this item had in fact belonged to Prigent). My auntie told me that my mother had lent Prigent a large sum of money to get him out of a hole, and had taken his papers and address book as security against this loan. Despite having had years in which to repay the debt, Prigent had failed to do so, and at the time my mother died in 1979 his address book and papers were still in her possession. My auntie cleared my mother's west London bedsit after her death and since she did not know how to get hold of Prigent (he was evidently no longer at the address he provides for himself on the opening page of his address book), she simply held onto the items he had provided as security against what turned out to be a bad debt.

My auntie had no idea Michel Prigent was known to me when she told me he'd been a friend of my mother. I am convinced that when she told me this she believed it to be true (and still did right up to her recent death). While it remains possible my auntie was mistaken, I feel the supporting evidence of Prigent's address book and papers provide convincing corroboration of her claims on this score. When my auntie first told me in 2002 that Prigent and my mother had been friends I believed her, as I still do. It seems to me that guilt over a bad debt is one of a number of factors that motivates Prigent to keep up his vendetta against me and falsely deny that he knew my mother. While I am not interested in pursuing Prigent for the money it would seem is owed to me now that my mother is dead (I am her only child), if repaying this debt will help him overcome what I perceive to be guilt feelings that fuel his hatred of me and cause him to lie about his friendships (and many other matters as it happens too), then as a magnanimous gesture I am prepared to accept whatever he can afford as repayment in full.

As a token of my good faith in this matter, I reproduce here merely the opening pages of Prigent's old address book: enough of it to demonstrate that it exists and is in my possession. However, should this clown continue to offer succour to Nazis (albeit inadvertently), then I may choose to reproduce online the rest of this address book and possibly even other of Prigent's papers in my possession. NB: at the bottom of the first address book page reproduced here is an underlined note saying “if you find this book please send it back” followed by Prigent’s name, address and phone number. Moving on, Prigent's fellow pro-situs might like to scoff at some of the contacts to be found here ranging from Adrian Mitchell to the Arts Lab, B. S. Johnson and William Burroughs to Black Dwarf… Ho ho ho very spectacular!!! And these are only the opening pages – you won't believe what's in the rest of the book!!! Would anyone like to make a hefty bet on Daniel Guerin not being in there???

Stewart Home, 21 July 2008.

Above pages from Michel Prigent's address book, one of a number of items he apparently gave Stewart Home's mother Julia Callan-Thompson as security against a loan he never repaid.

Don't Give Up The Day Job (More on Prigent & O'Hara from Stewart Home)

Sucked (more on Prigent from Unpopular Books)

Prgent-O'Hara: A Tale of two Shitheads (from Unpopular Books)

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