Why Kate’s new book ‘Madeleine’ is another mystery in the McCann saga!
Categories: Articles
Written By: Socialpaws
There isn’t a soul around today who hasn’t heard of the mysterious disappearance of Madeline McCann. If they haven’t heard of it, they have surely spotted a poster of the adorable little girl’s familiar and innocent face in their local supermarket noticeboard; or perhaps watched news footage of the McCann’s slow and terrifying descent into despair, as their vulnerable three year old apparently simply vanished into thin air.
We all held our breath for weeks and months, and alternatively sympathised and felt anger for this elusive couple, who by all accounts appear as the victims in the matter. Well, perhaps they are to some extent, but surely the one and only victim here is Madeleine herself? The mute little angel who has obviously suffered at the hands of some grave injustice.
Kate and Gerry McCann have been the focus of much public vitriol in the last four years. We can recall Kate’s gaunt and withdrawn stature on that fateful night on May 3rd 2007. The stark image of a mother ravaged with pain as she silently stood amongst the throng of cameras and police officials, all at a loss as to what happened to the little girl. We all felt her desperation, her sense of incomprehension, and more importantly, we wanted the little girl to be found as soon as possible and the evil-doers brought to justice.
So what went wrong? Because approximately four years after this event, Madeleine is still missing, and yet incredibly her name continues to be whispered with sorrow worldwide.
So we are still asking the same questions, and still faced with the same desperate sense of wonder. Where is Madeleine MCann and what really happened to her?
To mark the anniversary of the tragic event, Kate McCann has suddenly released her thoughts in her forthcoming book simply entitled ‘Madeleine.’
The reasons for the publication are given as follows:
“There are several different reasons as to why I finally came to the decision with my husband Gerry to write and publish this book,” said Kate McCann. “This decision has not been an easy one. Many factors needed to be given thorough and careful consideration, not least the impact of such a book on the lives of our three children. My reason for writing is simple; to give an account of the truth.”
Some of the revelatory ‘facts’ which Kate spills in the book have already caused some controversial debate, such as her confession at having argued with her husband and slept with Madeleine in her room the night before the alleged abduction. So what if she argued with her husband? Don’t we argue with our partners all the time, that doesn’t mean our kids just up and disappear right? Is Kate expecting us to make some connection? And what has this little snippet of information have to do with her disappearance, or indeed have to do with finding her?
Kate also tells us that she thinks Madeleine may have tried to let her know that someone had attempted to enter the Portuguese apartment the previous night! Really? Did it take Kate four years to remember this (actually quite important) fact as I do not recall it ever being mentioned before.
So whatever Kate tells us we must take on face value; and we all know that Kate will endeavour to elicit compassion. To put right the many ‘wrong’s about the British public’s emphatic weariness and disgust at her and her husband’s most bizarre and puzzling story. But let’s not be too harsh here. After all, this couple rightly or wrongly have been through a lot. This includes not just the pain of a child lost, but the media scrum which accompanied the disappearance.
Whether you agree that Mr and Mrs McCann are to blame for their daughter’s disappearance, or the explosive media coverage straight after, the truth all boils down to the fact that a little girl has been let down so tremendously that even so called ‘officials’ are cashing in nicely on the Madeleine ‘spectacle.’
My questions are; what of the 10,000 children that go missing each year in the UK? And if you were to include the USA in your numbers you’ll hit the one million mark. Wait a minute! This really is an astonishing amount of children. But who are they? Where are their own parent’s stories of bereavement, investigation and so on? In the UK a child is said to go missing every five minutes. A small percentage are found murdered, abducted by custodial-fighting relatives or paedophile gangs. Most simply slip the net and are never found.
So why is it these children aren’t given even a tiny percentage of the overall media coverage the McCann’s have afforded for Madeleine? Why has the McCanns case become so virally exposed? Surely it can’t be just because it happened on foreign soil?
Doesn’t it all seem a little odd?
Perhaps some of these answers are in Kate’s book itself. We know the McCanns have generally amalgamated somewhat famous identities in the wake of their daughter’s demise, which does beg the question are they using the media frenzy to their own advantage?
If you think about it, we have all the so-called facts already. Kate and Gerry left their sleeping children alone in a Portuguese apartment. (Bad start!) The children were checked on, apparently, every twenty minutes whilst the couple and their holiday chums were quaffing champagne and eating dinner close by at a ‘nearby’ bar. During one of the adult ‘checks’ they find the little girl ‘gone.’
Now it appears that Kate intends to fill in the blanks, to unveil some more little truths about what they were all up to that very night. But will it be enough to cure the British public’s thirst? Will the couple then continue with their lives and stop the continuous public assault? Has Kate written this book just to expose the ‘truth’ or merely to capitalise on her name?
It appears that even in a 385 page non-fiction publication, we will turn the last page and still have countless questions thereafter.
But still, the truth is out there, and only the little angel with the innocent face really knows it.
‘Madeleine’ by Kate McCann is available as of 12th May. You can pre-order your copy now from Amazon
Published by Bantam Press (12th May 2011)
Related Media:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/08/madeleine-maccann-mother-suicidal-thoughts
May 9th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
I’m not too interested in the Madeleine McCann case truth be told. As you rightly point out there are too many children who go missing for us to just focus on one.
It’s a terrible thing for a family to be through, every day they must be kicking themselves over the loss.
However publishing a book on their experiences strikes me almost as if they miss dancing with the media. Surely any sane family would just want to go back to trying to regain as much of normality as is possible.
May 9th, 2011 at 7:13 pm
Don’t even get me started on the Mcanns! You just DONT leave three babies alone ANYWHERE let alone a hotel apartment.!!!!!! No excuses!!! They don’t deserve what happened, no parent does, but I doubt I’d ever forgive myself if it was me! And hte book is another money spinner for them both.
May 9th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Hmm. The jury is out on this one. Whilst I have an abundance of empathy for the family, I can’t help but hark back to the fact that they left them alone. I am childless, but even I know this is a no-no. But this is all very well in hindsight and is not going to bring the little girl back. Do I want to read a book on this subject? Hmm, I am unsure. I had heard about Maddie trying to warn Kate about an intruder, so part of me thinks that the book would bring nothing new to the table. I applaud their tenacity in keeping their daughter in the public eye but, when all is said and done, they are to blame. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can park this thought long enough to read a 300+ page novel.
May 9th, 2011 at 9:32 pm
I cannot believe they have written and published a book! And really, to write in it that Madeleine had tried to say someone tried to go in the apartment the night before!! No, you don’t leave any child on their own at all, but would you seriously leave them after being told that someone had tried to go in the apartment the night before?! Maybe I’m wrong but that just gives me the impression that they are trying to avert any suspicion from themselves.
No parent should have to suffer the loss of a child, and maybe they are not involved in Madeleine’s disappearance, however, in my mind, they are to blame. They should never have left their children alone!
I for one will not be buying the book and fuelling their hunger for fame and riches. It’s just not normal behaviour to be writing a book about it anyway, are there any other books by parents of missing children? As far as I know there isn’t, as far as I know, as avid reader states above, all the high profile missing children’s parents have tried to get back to as normal a life as is now possible for them.
I hope the truth of what has happened one day does come out, and if and when it does, it will not be from Madeleine’s parents!
May 9th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
If those children awoke in the dark, one minute alone is upsetting, five minutes is TERRIFYING and this bunch of hapless holiday mugs decide to leave them for what 20 to 30 mins?? before popping their heads around the door?? say what you want Kate but there is just no excuse for bad parenting!!
May 9th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
Has anyone wondered where this ‘search’ money is going. I doubt that the McCanns are funding backpacking trips around the world with twins at home. so WHO are they throwing the revenue at? If indeed they are!
May 10th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
Good observations in this article. I am of the impression that so much media attention is/has the opposite effect the McCanns wish for. Instead of gaining sympathy (which they got intially) they later gained public scrutiny and suspicion. If I for one, had been in their position I would not have brought such massive attention to the issue, it has done nothing to help find the little girl. I believe if anything it may have scuppered every chance they had, what with the ‘abductors’ possibly doing away with the little girl at the earliest opportunity.
May 11th, 2011 at 11:12 pm
@cleo I couldn’t agree more. Its just not something that you do. I wouldn’t forgive myself either.
@Nat if they want to keep their daughter in the public eye surely there is a better way than writing a book that they can profit from?
@Julia I agree I hope it isn’t the parents.
@serengetigirl I don’t know if I agree about the times, the children were there together and as sad as it is they were probably used to it. At least they weren’t alone (as in on their own).
In another way though they were alone.
It seems that the majority if not all the readers of this post seem to blame the McCann’s myself included. Does anyone think that writing a book about the matter may have been the right thing to do?
May 12th, 2011 at 12:39 am
AvidReader – I find it quite insensitive to write such a personal book, which includes personal revelations about their marriage and her fragile state of mind. This is not what the issue is about anyway. The issue is about a missing girl. Why do we need the Kate biography? This is why I find the whole ‘book deal’ thing a bit sinister. If Kate’s argument is about telling the ‘truth’ in light of all the ‘untruths’ she believes have been circulating, why would she need to justify anything if she believes she hasn’t done anything wrong! They also make statements about racking up even more proceeds that will go into the funding of more Maddy searches. Who in a whole four years after the event is qualified to find her now?
May 12th, 2011 at 3:25 pm
I really can not feel their story. Really who would leave those little kids at a room by themselves? They should be introuble for leaving those kids alone and why would someone come in and only steal one child?
May 12th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Exactly Stephanie. They seem to find it hard to admit that it was wrong to leave them alone in an apartment, justfying it by saying they were close by. You cannot be close enough to children!!! Two minutes looking away and anything can happen to them. I cannot help but think what if one of them began choking or there was a fire? I don’t even like my toddler being in the next room on his own let alone the whole apartment!
May 19th, 2011 at 4:57 pm
I totally agree no children deserves to be left alone, but no-one deserves what they have been through, and a money spinner I think NOT the money will be used to pay for the people that are looking for Madeline, just remember the MCanns know they have done wrong…… they could have easy walked away with no publicity at all but they havent….. I truely feel that one day they find that wee girl and I bet there is not a day goes by that they dont feel its their fault…. And on the other question of all the other children that go missing I agree why was no publicity surrounding them??????