Those of you who know me well, will be aware that I have not been well in recent months.
Thanks to the excellent French medical service, which is second to none, I have undergone a battery of tests in record time, no waiting, no messing, outstanding courtesy and efficiency at every turn. Hopefully they have now arrived at an answer that will see me back to my normal ebullient self in one or two months.
One or two months is a long time in blogland. I am more aware than anyone that my posts recently have lacked sparkle, and been pedestrian. Most days I have struggled to write anything at all. I don’t believe that this blog can stand another two months or so of my lacklustre self. It would survive, but I am too much of a perfectionist to settle for mere survival.
I never intended to run my own blog, I would have been very happy to pen the occasional piece for Anorak, but events overtook me, and I found myself swept along on a tide of ‘no more Anorak’ followed by someone ‘helpfully’ setting up a blog in my name, and ultimately making the decision that – with a couple of others – we would go it alone. The couple of others fell by the wayside, and there I was, running a blog single handed, the very thing I had never intended to do.
‘Anna Raccoon’ has been unbelievably successful, I didn’t even know how to collect ’stats’ for the first two months, but since I learnt that trick, there have been over half a million page views in the past six months. Thousands of people from all around the world arrive every day to read. I feel honour bound to give them something to read.
I also feel like a hamster on a wheel.
I made the decision initially to go with a self hosted blog, hosted outside of Europe’s draconian libel laws, because I had – through what seemed like a lifetime of moderating Anorak through the ‘McCann wars’ – a continuing interest in the fate of that little girl. I had hoped to provide a platform for reasoned debate on the subject; even a year ago, other fora were dividing into those who felt the parents were saints and should be supported, and those who wished to see them hung drawn and quartered. Those who were so alert to the possibility of libel, and those who were prepared to print anything and everything. I quickly learnt that a ‘middle of the road’ position, open to all opinions, is simply not possible on that subject, you disappear under an avalanche of abusive e-mails from all sides regardless of what you write. I had trolls, I had attempts to hack my site, I had spoof sites set up cruelly lampooning my regular posters, I had some of the most abusive, vitriolic, and disturbing e-mails it has ever been my misfortune to receive. It was a very unhappy period, for no other reason than that I was not prepared to act or write as though I knew the ‘truth’ of the matter – either ‘truth’. For or against.
Eventually I made the decision that I simply would not write of Madeleine any longer, I would turn my attention to other matters that interested me.
I am a Quaker; I am at heart a natural Libertarian, I believe strongly in personal responsibility and self discipline. Not surprising then that I should join and support the Libertarian party. Nor that I should write of politics, UK politics, even though I am personally disenfranchised, and no longer live in the UK, I haven’t stopped being saddened by what has become of a country that I loved very much.
Old Holborn offered me a platform, and I shall always be grateful for his wise counsel, friendship, and support. There is a small part of him that contains one of the sanest minds I know. Guthrum likewise. To say I was slightly surprised by the un-Libertarian instincts of some of my fellow travellers, would be a monumental understatement.
My first post on Old Holborn was roundly, resolutely, robustly, attacked by Stan. My punctuation, my use of apostrophes, my English, was not ‘as prescribed’ by the Libertarian rule book. I had no idea that there was a Libertarian rule book, I had innocently thought that the whole idea of Libertarianism was that we should each do ‘our own thing’ providing we were not hurting anyone else, and were taking responsibility for ourselves. Schmuck that I was. In the weeks that followed, I was again plagued by trolls on the site, Libertarian ones this time, and received a number of e-mails which should not have hurt, they were only words, but hurt they did. I was worthless, valueless, a piece of shit, had no business writing on Old Holborn’s site. So much so that I asked Old Holborn to remove me from his blogroll. I took my e-mail address off my own site.
Not for the first time, I wondered why on earth I was running this blog. It was the support of good friends and loyal posters, many dating from my time at Anorak, that kept me going. I took to writing just what amused me, and amused my friends. Peace reigned once again.
I can no longer remember which came first – Old Holborn inviting me back again, or me deciding to prune my blogroll to just those bloggers whose output I actually read, and those who had been kind enough to support me. A fateful decision, that eventually unleashed a tsunami of vitriol from two well known bloggers who kept up a campaign for many a month of continuous contemptuous articles denigrating me, and claiming I had no right to term myself a Libertarian. Each article would be followed by a series of e-mails from people concerned that I might not have seen the latest missive. I seemed to spend my days trying to find something to write, and also time to answer the semi-continuous e-mails. I probably shouldn’t have graced them with a reply, but that is not my way.
One of the main bones of contention with my new protagonists was that I said I supported Guido ‘totally’. Whilst it is apparently perfectly OK to condemn someone ‘totally’ in the unwritten book of Libertarian rules, supporting them ‘totally’ is anathema.
I do support Guido, he has opened the door through which we all pour out our hearts on a daily basis; though I can assure you, and I have held my tongue for many a month of this subject, that far from me being in some’ cosy country club’ with him and other bloggers, Guido is barely aware of my existence. I gave him many hours of my time and energy moderating for him when he needed it. In return, he has never graced me with so much as a thank-you, has never blog rolled me, has never e-mailed me more than a scant three or four words, as in ‘are you there’ when he needed an extra moderator, has only once commented on my site, a curt ‘correct’ one day, and to add insult to injury, I am completely and utterly banned from his site by his mysterious algorithms which are unable to cope with the word ‘coon’ even when it is cunningly hidden about my name, or concealed in a hyperlink to my name. He has given me two links, one when I became the only blogger to ever have a cabinet minister comment on their site, which I am quite sure he would have handed out to anyone else in the same position, and once when I produced a piece of artwork lauding Heather Brooks at a time when everyone else seemed to have forgotten that without her there would have been no ‘MPs expenses scandal’. For that I have endured months of vitriol which yes, did cause me a lot of unhappiness; there is a real person behind this blog, one that doesn’t enjoy being on the receiving end of a vendetta.
It seems to me that the world of blogging is fuelled by petty jealousies, vitriol, feuds, unsubstantiated allegations, apostrophe police, and a whole host of people who in another age would have been happy twitching their curtains and writing letters in green ink. I have watched in horror as several new forums have descended into a cesspool of hatred and nastiness, and you know what? I got up this morning and decided that I just didn’t have the energy anymore, or the thick skin, to do it any longer.
Why should I? I live in a wondrously idyllic enclave, I have a life outside of this blog that I have ignored for too long.
I spent today clearing a millstream of debris and jetsam, tonight it is flowing clear and fresh, the moorhens are happy, the frogs are leaping, my dog is muddy and exhausted. The world is a better place for my endeavours. Best of all, there will be no snide e-mails to answer, I didn’t have to keep checking on my work to make sure that some mischievous person didn’t post an advertisement for Viagra or unfairly lambast another poster for their opinion. There was no danger of my work suddenly disappearing into the cyber-ether becasue I’d been too tired to press the right button. I shan’t be spending tonight upgrading the site becasue Wordpress demanded I did. Tomorrow I shall be out in the winter sunshine clearing the mill pond.
If there is anyone out there with the thick skin required to withstand the brickbats, the tenacity to spend hours tending the site, the desire to write seven days a week, then there is here a ready made site, with a readership of around 3,000 a day, fully paid up until some time in 2011, I would be happy to give it to you. Be my guest. No payment required. E-mail me at annaraccoon@gmail.com and it is all yours. This offer will stay open for one week from today, after that the curtain will come down.
Do with it as you please, but please look after my posters, they are a good hearted bunch, not given to foul mouthed rants, with wit and wisdom aplenty. Were it not for them I should have chucked the towel in long ago.
To those posters, thank-you, thank-you for the laughs we have had along the way, thank-you for your friendship, support, and inspiration. Thank-you for helping me to create something I am truly proud of, I am sorry that I just don’t have the energy to run with it alone any longer.
To the gentleman who repeatedly e-mails me offering to scour my vagina with a wire brush mounted on a Black and Decker – make the most of this week Pal, I shall be crashing that e-mail address at the end of this week.
I do believe that Mr G has my dinner ready once again. Not much longer Mr G, I’m rejoining the human race. I’ll cook next week……..
{ 114 comments… read them below or add one }
Anna,
Really sad to read that, but can understand how you feel.
Whatever you have written Anna has been, as usual, worth reading and you have no cause to denigrate yourself, or your writing.
I do so hope you regain your full health and wish you all that you would wish for yourself and your family.
Take care.
Sorry to hear these news but can understand the need you feel to turn the page. Take care of your health and your life.
I must say that due to the cultural gap, I sometimes found it difficult to follow…nevertheless your writing was excellent and your knowledge and culture impressive. Consider editing all the subjects you treated making a good selection not forgetting the witty comments and that would be a bookshop success.
We shall miss you even if not a Libertarian !
Also thanks for the long e-mail you wrote me not such a long time ago.
Anna, you’re making the right decision. Best of luck and good health to you. It’s been a pleasure.
Personal health and honesty come way before ANYTHING else. Without them there can be only chaos.
I have only been reading your blog for about a fortnight and it has been enlightening to say the least.
Hopefully once you are on an even keel again you can return under a different guise and leave the vitriol Anna and Anorak attracted behind.
Whatever you decide as Dave Allen used to say ‘May your god go with you’.
And thanks for making my avatar thingy all those months ago!
Sic transit Gloria Smuddi…….
Take care, look after yourself, and have a lovely time relaxing and enjoying the real world.
I too wish you well.
It has a been a pleasure reading you for the last few months.
Take care, hope to read you again when you are firing on all cylinders.
CR.
Anna,
You will be missed in this part of France but I know you will enjoy life in the part you inhabit – just be careful of sheep in waterlogged fields.
I will have to change my habit of going to your site to read your wisdom of the day and would echo Valerie and ask you to consider compiling some of your posts into a book, be it a real or an e-book because what you have said bears repeating.
Above all you must restore your health then go on and enjoy it. Like the others I too send my best wishes.
ivan
I wish you the best. If you can possibly return to blogging in the near future, I will be so pleased as you make my day with your pithy reports.
You are a star of the Blogosphere. Please don’t wane.
Get (completely) well soon Anna.
I discovered your Blog only a few months ago, and it has been Daily Reading ever since.
I’ll miss your observations & opinions. (Well those that I agree with; the rest simply get consigned to the Amnesiac Cells I have an aptitude for culturing.)
Sorry to hear this, I would take it over but for the fact that even I have not had the time to blog due to pressures of work.
You know I love reading your blog. You are so eloquent (I wish I was).. can ‘t you just post intermittently when something really peeves you?
x
Anna
When I came up against ‘The final curtain’ I didn’t want to accept my immediate reaction. But you write so honestly and candidly that…after reading to the end…I understood.
Somebody said – Walt Disney perhaps – ‘Always leave them wanting more’. This can only work if the curtain is lowered on a triumph, when one is at one’s best. You were and you are. It was a brave decision to call time.
May you remain at your best…if not (for now) in print.
If raccoons hibernate…go for it!
Whatever, keep bushy-tailed.
Thank you
ps And thank you for your gracious reply to my recent pedantic note about the spelling of Caribbean!
First bit of advice I was given joining the mob was: look after yourself, cos no other bugger will (closely followed by never volunteer for anything).
Have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blogs, although came to it late.
Take care of yourself.
You’ll be sorely missed.
Best wishes for any and all future endeavours.
Dungeekin
Your gonna look pretty fucking stupid picking up the Orwell Prize when you no longer have a blog. Mind you, Nightjack had the same problem.
Why do we blog? I blog simply for my own amusement. And I suspect you do too.
You have the keys to my place, let yourself in and make yourself comfortable whenever you wish. Margaux is in the sideboard, ripe cheeses in the larder and the ashtrays await.
Bye.
I’m sorry to hear that, i will miss your blog very much, but go and enjoy the real world !
Ermmm……. about that two quid you owe me.
Thanks Anna, on my daily ritual of blog reading, yours was the first I read – well, you’re an “A” aren’t you? I guess Bella will be where I go next.
I can’t say I’m not disappointed, I genuinely am, but I wish you all the best in whatever the future holds for you.
Goodbye,
Pete
Anna, I’ll be missing you. Godspeed!
I’m another who will miss reading your blog and thank you for allowing me to participate…..Cheers!
Sorry to see you go Anna! Yours is one of the first blogs that I turn to when I want informed comment rather than rants, and I’ll miss that bit of sanity.
I hope your health improves as a result.
Good luck and best wishes.
Sad to see you go, but as you are well aware, real life comes first.
Here’s to the future, whatever it brings.
Really, really sad to see you end your blog. A very moving final post. I am sure I am not alone in saying I will miss your writing – have not yet read any other comments.
In these dark and dreary Orwellian times voices such as yours are needed more than ever. Wish I could run a blog but unfortunately I don’t have the skills – can barely type.
Thanks for the pleasure you have provided and all the best for the future.
Paulo.
Your site has been a revelation to this ordinary fella.
Through the topics covered by your good self, I now take a much keener interest in the Real World.
Thank you so much you wise old bird (to coin a phrase….!).
Nooooooooooooooooo!
I am sad to read about you are throwing in the towel but I totally understand your reasons for it and I also know how difficult it is to get decent daily content on the site (although my content is nowhere near as good as yours!)
I would love to aquire your site but I wouldn’t be able to give it the justice it deserves and I would have to flush it all down the drain for all your achievements with the site to date.
I would like to thank you specifically for your content on the New Deal, A4e etc. and related subjects.
I wish you all the best for the future.
I have thoroughly enjoyed your thought provoking postings, and will miss them. We do indeed live in curious times, one post has called them Orwellian, sadly have to agree.
Wisdom breaks in sometimes when we need it to, though sorry to read your final curtain call, sometimes enough is enough. There are people who inspire, you have done so abundantly.
Thank you, and God speed.
I’ll miss you. You provided a great start to my day and made me question and think about many subject that I would not normally have contemplated.
I hope you return to full health soon and enjoy and embrace all to which you now turn your attention.
I shall truly miss you, Anna.
What is it with some people that they have to hound others and give them a hard time? To read that some morons have taken you to the depths of despair hurts us all in bloggerland.
On our blogroll I tried to get a mix of all political and erudite blogs in the hope that I (and our readers) may learn something, and you never failed us.
Farewell Anna, I will keep your blog on our roll in the hope…
Au revoir, Anna – it’s been brief, but it’s been pleasant. All the best to you and yours.
Many thanks for such enjoyable and enlightening reading in your posts; they will be sorely missed.
All the best for a speedy recovery and wish you well in the future.
You’ll be sorely missed. Best wishes Anna, take care.
So long and thanks for all the fish (and the blogroll link).
Hope you get better very soon.
Blogging is fun and when it stops being fun, it’s time to stop.
Anna,
Your blog was always a pleasure to read, our politics may clash but your amazing intellect has made me question my own beliefs on many an occasion.
Shame on those who have caused you upset, small minds.
I will miss your writings, all the very best of luck to you and yours, I wish you health, hope and happiness.
Rich.
P.S. Don’t be a stranger to the fora you frequent xxx
Anna,
What a crying shame that you’re calling it day. I shall miss your erudite prose and I shall miss you.
I have no idea of the identities of those who pursued you with vitriol but shame on them.
Dear Anna,
A new journey: Get well soon.
I hope you do, in any form, stay in touch and give people you know
an update now and then how you are doing.
We will all miss you.
Best of luck out there in the real world. It’s full of weirdos.
You have to put your health first. Get well soon.
Anna,
Its a shame that things have conspired to make you call it a day. I’ll miss your eloquent insights. OH is right, by the way.
Thanks for linking to my blog in the very first weeks of its life.
Best Wishes and Best of Health,
Delphius.
You will be missed. I wish you good luck and good health.
I have only posted comments on your blog a few times but have read many articles and appreciated what you had to say.
I hope you get very well and are able to pick up one day where you left off with this or a similar blog in the future.
Best of health,
AnnaNonAMoose.
Hope you get well soon, everybody reaches a point in their lives when something has to change. Not that that change is a bad thing.
In my own life it was quitting a job that i hated, now i am happy and my current job gives me a sense of satisfaction i have not felt for years.
You have a gift for writing, explore it. The amount of warm comments you have received shows your talent at communicating, even if some are too blind to see
Hope to read your thoughts again someday
I will miss your great writing very much. All the very best for the future.
So sorry to hear you’re leaving us (for now).
I’ve never commented before, but your blog has been a daily treat for me for the last year. Like you, I have left the UK for a new life (Turkey in my case) and I will miss your honesty and good humour.
Wishing you the best of health and a rewarding life in your new home. Never forget you have many friends here who appreciated the wit and humanity you brought to the party.
Several things strike me from reading your farewell…..
Your talent and intellect has both humbled and inspired me.
If you don’t look after yourself you will not be able to look after anything else – you MUST put your health and your wellbeing first.
I wish I had discovered you earlier – thank goodness for Missus Smudd!
You are turning your back on those pathetic individuals who made you the target of their hate and vitriol due to the shortcomings in their own lives and probably don’t have the ballz to speak up in public.
You are making the right choices and taking your power back.
And finally………. the saying of the day on the tag of my Yogi Tea Women’s Moon Cycle teabag
“Your Soul is your highest self” so go look after ‘your self ‘and be well happy and covered in muck from the duck pond – what a joyful existence!
I regret not finding you earlier. Thank you so much for your wise and carefully written articles.
I do wish you well and hope that your health improves greatly.
Thank you for being a beacon of light in this very dark world.
Anna, I’m sorry to hear you are hanging up your blogging boots. Look after your health, that’s the main thing. I suggest you keep your blog and just post on the odd occaison you need the catharsis. I’ll be leaving you in my RSS reader, in case you do. Shame on those who attacked you for being not their kind of Libertarian, they are a reason why Libertarianism won’t grow big enough to be a real threat to the enemy class.
Bon chance,
marksany
I’ve enjoyed reading you.
Good luck.
thanks Anna
Educated guess; pernicious anaemia?
Get well soon!
Get well soon!
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog since I first came across it, and your viewpoints shall be sadly missed.
What a superb blog and the show must go on.
Is it “Au Revoir” or “Goodbye” ??
I hope your health improves very soon and you will feel able to return to blogging. I rate your blog as “in the top ten” for insight, clear analyses and highlighting going-ons we lesser mortals might have overlooked. Peace be with you.
Damn and bugger. I’m a bit slow and only recently found you.
Your writing has made me laugh, blink, squirm but mainly think.
Have a rest and drink too much…………… Then come back
Please!
Life comes before blogging, you’re making the right decision, just don’t turn your back on saying what needs to be said completely. I’ve enjoyed reading your words, your thoughts often enough meshed with mine and when they didn’t I never felt the need to be abusive or corrosive with any comment that was made, something some out there could do with a lesson in.
Get well soon and come back if or when you want, you’ll be sorely missed.
Hi Anna, I’ve only commented on your blog a couple of times but I’ve read a lot of your articles & always enjoyed them – even if I didn’t always agree with your viewpoint. I hope the ‘vitriol’ email writers feel proud of themselves. Personally, I think it’t very bad manners to be rude to a blogger on their blog or by email – just go & read a blog more to your taste.
You’ll be missed – here’s to a speedy recovery & perhaps with renewed health will come a renewed interest in blogging? All the very best for the future & hope to read you again sometime, either here or as a guest on another site.
What a shame. I have been reading your blog for the last six months and have been constantly amused and enlightened by your incisive posts. There is too much vitriolic rubbish out in the blogosphere, so I hope that yours will only be a temporary retirement.
Try and ignore the naysayers – debate is one thing, bullying just shows a lack of imagination, not to mention ideas. Get well first of all, take a break, then perhaps re-think what I hope was a hasty decision.
Good luck for the future!
Wow, I am sorry you had so much grief, and am amazed you withstood so much of it for so long
Your blog has been great and I am sad to see it go.
Anna, best of luck and good health to you. It’s been a pleasure popping over for a read.
Anna, along with every other commenter I wish you a speedy return to good health. I feel ashamed to confess that I am not a regular vistor to your blog, but I’ve always enjoyed your comments on OH’s site, and elsewhere.
I am disgusted to hear what has been going on behind the scenes though. For heavens sake – aren’t we all supposed to be fighting the enemy, not each other??? I hope the idiots doing this feel really proud of themselves……NOT!
Please don’t give up completely – even if you close this down you’ve had OH’s offer. I hope you will find yourself able to make posts there from time to time.
Best Regards, and good luck.
Hello Anna, and, sadly, good-bye – at least for now. Your blog has become one of the first places I look to for informed comment, humour and humanity. I was so sad to hear that you won’t be blogging for a while, but you must look after yourself and get well soon for yourself and for your family.
You mention being a Quaker; I have had many Quaker friends in the past, although Roman Catholic myself, and I can see much in the way you friendly people do things.
God bless and keep you, Anna, and I hope you might feel like taking up your keyboard again one day in the not-too-distant future.
My very best wishes to you, and do have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Bob.
OH of course says it how it is as usual. Thank you Anna for helping me out when my search skills have failed me (which happens more often than I care to admit). It has been a pleasure reading your writings but I understand the time and effort required to keep a blog running smoothly.
I’m pleased to hear your health issues are being resolved and you’ll be back to fitness soon. My best wishes for the future. Take care. xx
May your God go with you to happiness and health. Toodle pip. X
For once I am speechless.
A shame you’re stopping. I never did make any comments here – never seemed to be anything that I thought I could add to. A measure of how much my thoughts matched yours on most topics.
I enjoyed reading. Take care, be kind to yourself, and enjoy France. For a hopelessly bureaucratic lot over there they’ve certainly managed to remember many things we’ve forgotten, about living life, and living it in the company of others.
Boo sucks (Except for the opening).
You will be missed. Really.
There is a sanity drought going on. Having one of the purer sources drying up is a shame. Enjoy the idyll.
I would,like so many others before me, to wish you well for the future & a return to good health & good blogging. Whoever your husband is he is in love with a diamond.
Best wishes
Brian.
It’s been (too) long ago we’ve talked.
Take care, will write to you soon.
A shame – from my selfish perspective – to see you go, but absolutely the right thing for your body and soul.
I too hope this is only au revoir. Perhaps, when the fields are white with daisies, you will return…
p.s. For those who were wondering who some of the vitriol pourers were, here is a good a place to start as any.
Though for fuck’s sake don’t wind up the kids that run the blog – once they get excited, its impossible to get them back to sleep.
To Anna. I am very sorry to hear that you are leaving. I foundyour articles to be informative and highly entertaining. I am also sorry to hear that you are in poor health and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you well for the future. Yours mark.
Anna,
Sorry to see you go. Good luck and all the best.
xxx
Dear Auntie Anna
I have this problem in that a woman I admire has signed off when perhaps she should’ve just taken time off.
I don’t know how I will cope without her lines of argument and threads of comment. What do you think – should I wish her a speedy recovery and then shut up? Or should I badger her to stay involved – even if only as a contributor – to the Contemporary Life is Bonkers and There Must Be a BetterWay space?
Yours confused
Yesterday Man x
Well, that’s the worst news I’ve had today. I’m sorry you’re going. I enjoyed your blogging. Good Luck.
I refer you to the opening line of Four Weddings and A Funeral: “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck….FUCK”
I read Pride and Prejudice TWICE; watched the BBC’s great adaptation 14 times! Why? Because of people like you, who know how to write; how to use the Queen’s English.
I loved your writing and it will be sadly missed (trite!!)….Just missed.
Oh, fuck it! Get well. I shall remember you as a great blogger!
Thank You Anna.I have been a regular reader and an admirer of your writing. I hope that you will still occasionally publish more articles.
Onwards and upwards Anna. Enjoy the countryside, the ethos and the life. Get well soon. Sadly missed
Best of luck, Anna. It was good to meet you recently, shame that you don’t feel you can continue making certain parts of the establishment bristle, but if that’s how you feel, there is only one choice to make. Look after yourself (a bit jealous about the French lifestyle you describe, I must admit).
Yours is one of the blogs that has inspired me to write my own
granted my own is a little less highbrow, essentially tits and battleships and random hate rants against the rest of humanity but I’ll miss your blog
Oh dear, Anna. I’ve only just discovered your blog via a link from another and IT’S THE LAST ONE!!!! How bad is my timing, eh?? Just from this last article it sounds like the kind of blog I’d have checked into religiously every day. I just wish I’d found you sooner (and I’ll be keeping an eye open just in case you change your mind in the future ……!)
Look after yourself, enjoy your new-found freedom, and get back to full health a.s.a.p!
Anna,
Although we have had our fall out – although I would have to point out that the arguments pointed to by one on here were a debate on the very nature of libertarianism – it is sad to see anyone stop doing something they enjoy for their health.
I wish yo all the best and hope you recover fully.
Have a rest, then, maybe, come back rested and refreshed. Maybe use a different name? An anagram of you name would be Orca Can Anon. No, that’s rubbish. But I am sure you see what I mean!
Take care.
Well you’ve done it to me again, you owd bugger!
Took me bloody ages to find you after your exit from the caff – and that’s a story in itself! Gordon bleedin’ bennett woman, how the ‘eck am I gonna keep tabs on Saul and Gloria now?
Joking aside, I wish you all the best in whatever you decide to do – just keep me informed will ya? Hoping everything goes well and a speedy recovery. A Merry Christmas and hopefully a better New Year – I’ll miss you.
Anna,
I wish you all the best for a happy and happy future, but I shall really miss reading your blog.
Fare thee well, Anna
Fuck what I said earlier. Alcohol has provided perspective.
You are too important. These times are too desperate. Sod your health, too many have given more.
Dark times indeed. You are needed. Urgently.
sorry to hear this anna – i’ve read many of your posts through OH and sometimes here.
Enjoyed the majority of them and only occassionally find stuff I can’t agree with but this doesn’t stop me coming back – in real-life I would have run out of friends if I fell out with them over every time we disagree. (we disagree regularly!!)
Take care, get well and look after number 1 for now x
I don’t know your blog, sorry. Followed a link.
That’s the internet for you, isn’t it? It’s not just politics, you know. The whole thing is such a pressure cooker – every single messageboard I’ve ever known is fraught and tense. No body language. People state opinion as fact. People are quick to take offence and quick to give it without thought.
I don’t know you at all, but I wish you wouldn’t go. But since you are going, all the best.
Hi Anna,
I hope you do return to blogging when you’re well again. I hope you find a way to do it that suits YOU, first and foremost. I’ll be happy to read whatever future musings that you provide.
I went to a neighbour’s 90th birthday (after mutual good neighbourliness over a few years), where I was surprised to find that he and his wife were Quakers (I’m an aetheist myself).
That’s my idea of a decent religion; good values that don’t need shouting at people. I think you and your religion are well matched, I think that you do each other credit.
All the best, hope you return when it suits you
I heard the news from CLF, and left this comment:
How very sad. I really valued Anna Raccoon’s blog, and now two unthinking, inconsiderate, probably self-centred rather than self-interested idiots have deprived me of that value. I doubt that they will, but I hope they will some time be deeply ashamed of themselves.
Thank you Anna for all that you wrote, and I wish you a speedy recovery from the bruising. All the very be$t, JD.
Enjoy the time you have released for yourself by your decision, JD.
All best wishes for a speedy return to health.
Get well soon. Hope you make a quick recovery then enjoy a long and satisfying life.
Best of luck to you Anna. If and when you come back, don’t read comments!
Thank you.
Ooer, Lumme, Cripes and Crikey. So sorry to hear of your decision but I understand it absolutely and you have my full support, although I don’t expect it to fit. If you want a Fat Lady to sing, just let me know. Much love, Glo x
Most importantly, get yourself well again.
As an occasional reader (not a daily devotee) I would appreciate it if you could leave your blog open for readers until it runs out of web hosting or domain name. Of course the comments option should be closed to save you from further heartache.
Get well soon.
Anna, get well soon . Your wisdom and insightful writing has been a joy to read.
Like so many up above me in this set of comments, I shall miss your sanity, reason and consistency greatly and, as much, your elegant style. I also, as a blog addict, fully understand how all-consuming these things can become – but your health is an absolute priority.
People like you help us to remember that free speech and integrity are essential in keeping the idea of liberty alive, especially in the kind of times we are now facing.
Thanks for it all. I shall have great problems in removing your url from my top ten list of bookmarked blogs, the places I *have to go daily. I hope your health improves quickly and, just maybe, to see you back again at some point in the future. Take care, all the best. R
Ms. Raccoon,
Whilst I will miss your excellent writing, I am sure that you have made the correct decision. Life is too short and all that.
Get well. Stay well, and enjoy your idyllic retreat.
Get well soon Anna health is more important.
To the loony with the wire brush and Black & Decker
Get psychiatric help pal, you need it!
Blogging is a fundamentally selfish act. Cathartic. We don’t pay you to read your blog; if/when it ever stops being fun for you, Stop.
It doesn’t sound like you’ve enjoyed it for a while now.
You will be sorely missed. You have made an excellent contribution to a necessary world that is the last remaining outpost of the decent as well as the mad. However nothing but nothing beats country life, animals and wide open spaces. Enjoy and recuperate.
Anna,
One of the most honest and compelling writers I have had the pleasure to read the work of, the blogosphere will be the poorer for your final curtain, you may find yourself the richer in soul for pulling it down.
Good luck with whatever to intend to spend your time doing in the future. The flotsam and jetsam will always need attending to. I wish you well.
Anna, I’ve only just recently discovered your writing, but I will miss reading your blog daily. You truly have a vision alongside a gift of writing. It is a breath of fresh air to read your input of the goings on in this god forsaken country. I wish you all the best for recovery
Take a break Anna and see how you feel…
I’m been on the receiving end of quite a few brickbats too recently and it’s hard to deal with. But as my dad said, it’s a good thing, it means you are creating ripples…
I also know other bloggers that are giving up for very similar reasons to you (in the food world this time).
Journalists I know just don’t read their comments. Maybe this is the way to handle it.
Great to hear your honesty on Guido Fawkes less than gentlemanly behaviour.
Get well soon. Thanks for the great reads. You provoked my thoughts regularly and for that I thank you.
Willo
Get well. Be happy, stay happy.
Vive la France.
I hope you get better, and change your mind about ending your blog.
I am heartily sorry that you are giving up the blog.
But, a recent personal experience, makes me deeply sympathetic to your reasoning. I departed Drayton Bird’s blog, amidst a storm of completely untrue statements about my career, with some personal vile abuse thrown in for good measure.
My crime? Pricking at pomposity and vainglory, somewhat too acerbically it would apppear. But worse, I suspect, for questioning the logic and reasoning of some of his statements on areas abut which I have some knowledge.
Personally, I don’t have the courage or inclination to put up with that sort of thing day-in-day-out. And I have a great deal of admiration for your doing it.
Hopefully, someone will take up the Libertarian banner your blog represents: though they will have an almost impossibly hard act to follow.
Kind Regards
Shannon O’Hara
I know you didn’t take this decision lightheartedly, but have good reason for it. I join all others here: you will be tremendously missed. But it’s “me-time” for you now, and rightfully so. Would be great, if someone could look after this site till you’re 110%
better again and maybe review your decision. Meanwhile, if there is anything I could do to help, you know where to find me 
I’m sorry that you have decided to stop blogging.
I’m sorrier that I didn’t have the time to read your posts very often – but there were some great posts there. (At least I had the good taste to add you to my blogroll).
I’m even sorrier about your health problems. I hope you do make a recovery.
And I’m sorriest of all for the unpleasantness that you were subjected to. I like my libertarianism to be accompanied by generous helpings of good manners and kindness.
All the best.
For what it’s worth, I’ll miss your words – always worth reading.
Good luck from a (recent) convert to this neck of the woods.
Please keep in touch with news of anything and everything, but mostly of course your health……….
When you use this medium, it pays to grow a thick skin. People write stuff in messages, comment-boxes and follow-ups that they’d never say in real life. Or maybe they’d say, but those vital little facial/body-language cues that disarm a seemingly callous remark said person-to-person are missing – and don’t we notice it! Basically, you can’t take anything anyone says in this medium as read! You just have to let it become like water off a duck’s back. We’ve all had this shit to deal with, Anna. I’ve been on the net since LBG (Long Before Google) and seen it all. Sometimes I’ve dished it out; sometimes I’ve had it dished out to me. Did it hurt? Yeah, it did until I woke up to what I’ve said above. Nowadays when I get attacked – as one always will be someone or other – it means nothing! Absolutely fuck all! Very liberating indeed!
So please don’t throw the towel in on account of a few wankers that probably never had an original thought in their empty little heads. Keep up the good work, Anna!