Farewell Anna, and thank you for your superb blogging.

Very sad to read Anna, even though I think we all knew this sort of announcement was inevitable. Thank you for the many years of superb writing, the blogosphere will not be the same without you. Very best wishes to you and G from me and the family.

“Parting is such sweet sorrow”. .. in your case it really is.

May you both enjoy your time together, where words fail as the silence of love takes over.

With thanks for the many truths you have spoken which were left unspoken by others.

In my thought & prayers.
Mark xx

Go in peace Anna. Thank you for all the years of fascinating and inspiring writing. You will be sorely missed.

Dearest Anna

I don’t often shed tears, but I’m not ashamed to admit that I have just now.

Thank you for having been you, done what you’ve done, and having written and said what you have.

I’ll be praying that the rest of your journey goes easy

Ho Hum

So the pub shuts.

Where else shall I find a hostess and other regulars with whom I can debate and parry? I shall miss so many fellow commenters and wonder what is happening with Blocked Dwarf and his Bestest Frau, whether Fat Steve enjoys that book, if Bandini carries on his tenacious conversations, if Ho Hum, has much more to “just say”..,etc etc, the list is endless.

So I am sorry for myself.

But mostly, I am sorry that you find yourself in this situation Anna, and I hope you find peace and respite and your departure is filled with grace.

Sincerely, windsock.

Thanks for making the world (OK, the internet) a better place.

And what Jack and Dick said. Farewell.

I’ve really enjoyed the blog over so many years and thank you Anna so much. I realise you are in poor health and pray that the end is as dignified and peaceful as possible

Thank you for everything you have done on this subject Anna.

Others better suited will eulogise and I hope you find peace in the days to come.

Best Wishes etc …

I can’t remember what made me visit The Raccoon Arms for the first time but I’m glad I did as Anna’s blog is always an interesting an entertaining read. Thank you Anna.

Cheerio

Goodbye wonderful Racoon. You are more than you know. The posts you offered us recently, have been too moving to speak about. And you might find a lack of comments here, for the same reason. We are too choked with affection to express ourselves.
Blessings on your journey.

Farewell Anna. Thanks and blessings to you and Mr. G.

So sorry dear lady to hear that this is the end of the blog. Ihave so much respect,admiration and gratitude for what you have done.
Very best wishes to you and Mr G

At the altar of a Dark Star
My body is now a begging bowl
Though it’s begging to get back
Begging to get back
To my heart
To the rhythm of my soul
To the rhythm of my consciousness
To the rhythm of yes
To be released from control

I was punching in the numbers at the ATM machine
I could see in the reflection
A face staring back at me

At the moment of surrender
I’m falling to my knees
I did not notice the passers by
And they did not notice me

I was speeding off the subway
Through the stations of the cross
Every eye looking every other way
Counting down till the pain will stop

At the moment of surrender
I’m falling to my knees
I did not notice the passers by
And they did not notice me

41,000+ urls from this site have been archived to date. Not sure how many pages that relates to.

VALE ANNA. NUMQUAM OBLIVIONE DELEBITUR.

Send Mr G to Marks & Spencer for a packet of soft figs, they are the nicest. Are you allowed Lactulose? I give a preventative dose to a relative when he is on heavy pain medication.

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Best wishes

Thank you Anna, peace and best wishes to you and Mr G…

“I was born here and I’ll die here, against my will.
I know it looks like we’re moving but we’re standing still.
Every nerve in my body is so naked and numb.
Can’t even remember what it was I came here to get away from!
I don’t even hear the murmer of a prayer.
It’s not dark yet – but it’s getting there”.
– Bob Dylan, “Not Dark Yet”.

“Now the world keeps spinning inwards and it’s all so seemly fit.
I guess the mystery’s in all of us who just don’t know how to quit.
I am so much bigger now, than these memories I recall
And the hunter tells his children “Love will rise above it all”.
– Jim McLean, “Love Will Rise Above It All”.

Farewell good lady and your excellent blog – we are grateful you carried on as long as you have. Few would have had the guts and tenacity to do it.
You know my situation Anna, and while I don’t envy you one jot I’m so happy for you that you and your love have time to say goodbye quietly and with resigned good humour.
I’d say much more but my eyes are leaking.

As a pragmatist, this inevitability was natural – as a human being, it hurts like Hell. You will never know how many lives you have enriched and enhanced through this modest blog, nor how many you have educated and developed in their viewing of this corrupting world. Whatever your remaining time holds, you deserve that it should be positive, peaceful, dignified and worthy, only appropriate for one who so consistently demonstrated those same attributes. For what it’s worth, my thoughts are with you both.

If the regulars manage to find some other welcoming hostelry to maintain their overwhelmingly good-natured debates, that would be good, but it will never be the same without the guiding stimulation and leadership of our Landlady. Life will go on, that’s the way of things, but it sure as Hell won’t ever be the same. Gone perhaps, but never forgotten.

If there is ever anything I can do to help either you or Mr G, you have my contact details and I would be both delighted and flattered to help in any way I can. It’s the least any of us can do to repay just some small contribution in recognition of you have given so freely to us all.

Very sad news but not unexpected. The Interwebs is losing a colossus, and the Arms will be sorely missed.
Look after yourself, Anna. Our thoughts and well wishes are with you.

Your unique work here as a controversialist brave enough to confront and challenge with truths an ocean of specious, modish idiocy, while suffering from a cruel chronic illness, is really an inspiration and a lesson in a world now full of precious whining little victim mongers with nothing of substance to complain about. We really need blogs such as this one.

Please accept my heartfelt best wishes.

Bless you, and fare forward. It’s been a rare treat, Anna.

41,000+ urls have been archived; not sure how many pages that relates to.

Thank you Anna for sharing so much with us. I hoped you would be around for a while but after the last break, I just hoped you would be here for Christmas. The description of your last visit to the hospital was in equal parts inspirational and frightening.
Best wishes for the future, Anna, what ever it may bring.

When I saw that I post had come up I feared that it was going to be written by someone else noting your passing. But, entirely typically, you’ve been bloody minded enough to put off the grim reaper for long enough to go out on your own terms. Well done Ms Raccoon, and hopefully you’ll get to read all these comments and know how much you’ll be missed. Love to you and Mr G.

I commented rarely, but have enjoyed your posts so much over the years.
My wife found the posts about your early years deeply moving because she had a devastating childhood too, so many similarities to yours despite the circumstances being obviously unique, and she was and still is a rebel too.
I paid particular heed to the Savile saga because ”they” overegged the pudding and it became nothing but a farce, you almost alone dissected the rubbish superbly.

You will be sorely missed Anna, more than my poor words can convey, they don’t make ’em like you any more and more’s the pity.

Thankyou so much for all you have given to us.

Sad news, and farewell, thanks for making such a wonderful blog. Thinking of you.

While La Raccoon was on her bed of pain over the last fortnight, and the rest of us were enjoying the hilarity of Donald Trump’s election triumph, a friend of mine from Poland came to stay and together, and with my son, we visited my mother. My mother, who is widowed, lives between Ashford and Canterbury in East Kent.

Because this friend was at a bit of a loose end, and he is a bit of an architecture buff, I took him off to look at Canterbury cathedral.

The cathedral is wonderful; every time that I look at it, I am awed by its size; you could certainly fit four Chatres cathedrals inside it, and probably about half a dozen Saint Denis. It is not the finest English cathedral – that’s probably Gloucester – but it is a magnificent building that somehow encapsulates a very English sensibility.

Fighting our way through the High Street, past the hordes of Saturday shoppers – I notice a Romanian couple walking through the crowds, so I put my hand on my wallet, as a precaution – we finally get to the gate to the precincts, where I am charged the princely sum of £32 to allow myself, my friend, and my son access. ‘This is my father’s house, but you have made it a den of thieves,’ I think sourly to myself.

We share our visit with various excited school tours of French and Spanish schoolchildren. French schoolchildren have a local reputation as ferocious shoplifters. The Spanish pose for group photographs and take selfies amongst the tombs. In the Chapterhouse, we find a bizarre modern sculpture of a life sized man bashing his head against a row of florescent lightbulbs. ‘What is it, Daddy?’, asks the son and heir. ‘It’s crap,’ I tell him. I desperately rack my brains to remember about the orders of gothic architecture, and point out the fan vaulting in the cloister. I’m on surer ground with Henry II and Thomas a Becket, the great Black Prince, and the tomb of that proto-George Osborne, Thomas Morton. We stroll around the precincts, admiring this huge edifice of Caen stone set on green lawn, and pass two bored patrolling policemen, decked out with flak jackets, revolvers, and machine-guns. I explain to my Polish friend that they are there to protect us from our recent immigrants who practice the religion of peace. Hie eyes are out on stalks. We exit though the gift shop. During our entire trip, we have not seen a single member of the clergy.

What is the point of the Church of England? Someone’s got to pay for Archbishop Justin’s Dame Edna-like costumes, with which he thrills us every so often, so I suppose that it might just as well be me and the other visitors to his office. A proper Church of England would be out evangelising amongst the heathens of the East End, and out great northern cities, to say nothing of our own gambling and booze-addicted working class. Instead, we get the occasional Polly Toynbee winge, wrapped up in the equivocations so dear to the modern churchman, and which lack any biblical reference. The institution is permanently navel-gazing and trying to square the circle of its own leftist agenda with biblical authority; viz. its attitude to homosexuality. It has become irrelevant to the rest of us. Go on, Justin Cantab and John Ebor, get off your arses and go and spread the word of the Lord to the heathens, white and brown, of Rochdale, Dewsbury, and Rotherham! And if you end up as martyrs – a pretty high possibility, I’d have thought – well, remember: ‘Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.’

But I don’t want to be too hard on the C. of E., useless, unmanaged, and irrelevant as it is, even lacking any confidence in itself.

Let me instead turn to our great secular religion, the NHS. Useless, unmanaged, and irrelevant, lacking confidence in itself.

Everyone that I have ever met who has experience of this ‘envy of the world’ – indeed, it’s such an envy that not one other country has copied it – has some tale of horror or woe at its indifferent and uncaring hands. My mother lives midway between the Kent and Canterbury and the William Harvey hospitals, both of which have reputations as God’s waiting rooms. The Norwich and Norfolk seems to have come bloody close, and not for the first time, to killing Mrs. Raccoon, and any, even half-witted, observer can see that there are basic failures of management, communication, and treatment. The staff, as Mrs. Raccoon points out, seem to have perfected the art of bustling about, achieving nothing, while completely ignoring the customers, like waiters in a restaurant. The Royal College of Nursing has insisted that to be a nurse you need to have a university degree, and such basic qualifications as common sense and empathy are irrelevant. Pride in your role and institution, such that you take management of a problem and resolve it, is alien. It’s not my problem, it’s someone else’s. Piss off, I’m on my break.

It’s not just the NHS and the church; there are other great swathes of our national life that the state has taken over and turned itself into the monopoly provider; the police, the ‘criminal justice system’, and – God help us – education. ‘The Sunday Times’ reported last week that 20% of pupils leave school functionally illiterate and innumerate. And yet, some of our schools are world class. Those are the private ones, of course.

Mrs. Raccoon’s experience – horrific when set out so well and in such detail – is par for the course for all of us. Who of us hasn’t come across a bolshie nurse, a bored doctor, a rude policeman, a politically correct but completely ignorant teacher, and an irrelevant vicar? There is a failure of politicians to manage – as they insist that they have a right to – our ‘public services’ – infested as they are with ignorant politicians, weak management, and over-unionised.

Major Bonkers’ Law: Almost anything that you get from the state is worthless. If you want a halfway decent service, you have to pay for it yourself.

Many thanks for encouraging me and many others to think critically and sceptically about what becomes “widely believed truth”.

Farewell.

Brave lady I have enjoyed your blog and learned so much about things nobody would have the balls to dare raise their head above the parapet for!
My eyes have wept at some of the comments so beautiful and grateful as we all are to have known you in such a small way! Love and peace to you and your lovely hubby

Thank you for such a wonderful blog Anna. You & ‘the regulars’ will be sorely missed.
Best wishes to you & Mr G

Best wishes Anna…

And many many thanks for all the fish.

Many thanks for such a great time reading your wonderful blog.

Thank you for being very incisive, very entertaining and any number of other superlatives, which I feel no need to list, as I think we can each imagine what they are.

A typically elegant adieu from your blog, which will be greatly missed.

The best of best wishes to you and yours.

A very sad day. The ‘blogosphere’ will be a much poorer place without your doses of wit and insight. It seems inadequate to just say ‘thank you’, but thank you for the years of work you have put in for our entertainment and education, and good luck for the next part of your journey.

I am so sorry if not surprised to read this Anna. I would just like to say thank you for your wonderful blog. You have made me laugh, cry and most of all think, as you unraveled the nonsense on the MSM. I will miss you very much and all the regular commentators. I hope someone finds a way we could keep in touch. Enjoy whatever time you have left with your beloved Mr. G. and when the time comes I hope for a peaceful passing. As my young cousin said when she wrote her own eulogy, see you on the other side.
Love
Carol xx

Farewell Anna, a visit to your blog has always been the highlight of my day. You will be sorely missed. Thank you for all of your hard work over the years.

Now my Bookmarks menu looks very unappealing. Thank you for all of your brilliant work.
Bestest of best wishes to thee and Mr. G.

The news we were none of us prepared for, despite the last couple of years. Sorry to see that some have made your last few posts so difficult – squashing nuisances is no way to spend your time, so calling ‘Time!’ one last time (I need a new thesaurus…) makes the most sense. No matter how much we regulars would hope you continue supping and carousing into the wee hours…

Fare thee well, Anna. Enjoy the present as much as possible, and think back on the past with happy thoughts. As to the future, who among us knows..?

Thankyou for your unique and wonderful blogs. You are such a brave inspirational lady, you and Mr G are n my thoughts.

Farewell Anna. I rarely commented here as I found others said what I wished to say so much better than I could. This blog was the first I read each day, and you and it are going to be sorely missed.

missing you already…

I commented rarely, but have enjoyed your posts so much over the years.
My wife found the posts about your early years deeply moving because she had a devastating childhood too, so many similarities to yours despite the circumstances being obviously unique, and she was and still is a rebel too.
I paid particular heed to the Savile saga because ”they” overegged the pudding and it became nothing but a farce, you almost alone dissected the rubbish superbly.

You will be sorely missed Anna, more than my poor words can convey, they don’t make ’em like you any more and more’s the pity.

Thankyou so much for all you have given to us..

I love you, and will miss you. Thank you for your hospitality here, your tenacity, your wit and wisdom, your indomitable spirit and sage advice. A diamond and a credit to humanity. Again, thank you xxxxxxx

Goodbye Anna. Best of luck.

Dear Anna Raccoon

Thank you for all your work on your blog, helping to inform and entertain us, aided by your loyal commenters.

Thank you to Mr G for helping to keep you with us for so long.

Very best wishes to you both.

DP

Farewell Anna and it has been an absolute pleasure to have encountered you. Absolute bitch of an ending for you and I hope that whatever time is left is pain free, peaceful and lots of loving with Mr G.

Thank you for everything – your humour, your persistence, …….. I could go on.
But seriously though, my life is better because of yours.

In a world that sometimes seems not to value it, you have told the truth. Your goodbye has already been so much longer than originally feared that it seems incredible that you really are signing off, but I am going to miss you more than I can say – as a friend, critic, jester and occasional co-conspirator. Your are one of a kind, Ms Raccoon, and I wish I had got to know you earlier in your rumbustious career. Ave atque Vale.

Thank you for what you created. Some of your spirit will live on in what you leave behind. Your recent writing has provided a lot of insight about your early experiences and how they shaped you. I have for a long time had a personal saying that you shouldn’t blame yourself for past experiences or mistakes if you were simply doing the best you could with what you knew and had at the time. If only I had learnt that sooner in life! May your passing be as peaceful as it can be. Love to you and G.

In a world that sometimes seems not to value it, you have told the truth. Your goodbye has already been so much longer than originally feared that it seems incredible that you really are signing off, but I am going to miss you more than I can say – as a friend, critic, jester and occasional co-conspirator. Your are one of a kind, Ms Raccoon, and I only wish I had got to know you earlier in your rumbustious career. Ave atque Vale.

Shed a Silent tear for me,
As I have shed for thee,
A Tear that breaks the heart in two,
Ne’er meant for a love so true.

A Tear for love that now has gone,
A tear for life that lingers on,
All I ever ask of thee,
Shed a Silent tear for me.

With many respect and lots of thanks!
Thank you so much Ms Racoon x

Thank you and goodbye with much admiration. Peace be with you – as they say.

Hi Anna

I am a longtime lurker that has read every post on this blog. I will miss your honesty, writing skills and commitment to get to the truth, however uncomfortable.

You are one of the reasons the internet has become so valuable to the sceptical mind.

You will be missed. But I guess now is the time to curl up with Mr G and enjoy your life.

All the best
JonT

I understand the reasons. However, your presence will be sorely missed. There are few in the blogosphere with your integrity, perseverance, intelligence and way with words. Best wishes to you and Mr. G.

Many thanks. You will leave a big hole in the blogosphere.

Good luck, Anna. You’ll be greatly missed, but take the time to enjoy yourself now, while there is still time.
You’ve earned it.

Good luck, Anna. You’ll be greatly missed, but take the time to relax and maybe enjoy yourself now, while there is still time.
You’ve earned it.

Thank you, Anna. Love to you and Mr G.

On an almost daily basis you brought a tear to my eye, either with laughter or sorrow or, occasionally both. Many thanks from one who mainly sat in the corner of the snug and listened to those more eloquent and erudite. My thoughts will be with you and old tin fingers Mr G.

God bless you, Anna, and bon voyage. Thank you for running the most interesting and intelligent blog. Thank you for your intelligence, your insight, your honesty, your integrity and your gentle humour. We have been inspired, entertained and educated. Few of us will achieve as much.

Farewell, Anna.
Spent the afternoon trying to ‘remove the background’ from your masthead so as to have it printed on a t-shirt… there’s a good reason why ‘free online tools’ are free – they don’t bloody work. Several hours of inept pixel deletion later…
I’d fancied the ‘rag to a bull’ red one (it seemed apt) but settled for boring old black in the end. It’s unlikely – though not impossible – that a Raccoon-regular may bump into me wearing it one day. Should that happen I hope they’d say hello and a drink might be poured, glasses would be raised & a toast to ‘The Landlady’ made. One of a kind…
http://oi67.tinypic.com/2rdvl7m.jpg
I’ll read the comments later as The Arms is STILL flouting the smoking ban causing irritation to these old eyes of mine. May your journey be in peace. Goodbye. x

Very sad news but very many thanks for the insights, expertise and good humour your have dispensed over the years Anna.

Your parting instructions to readers who wish to access your research after the demise of the blog shows a degree of consideration way beyond the ordinary call of duty.

Best wishes

Simply “Thanks” for entertaining & educating me & other readers.

I can’t add or improve upon the many compliments already made by others.

You know what they say – when you go, always leave them wanting more…
And you have. Thank you so much for providing me with thought, inspiration, laughs and much more besides over the last few years. I shall miss the cosy (occasionally bellicose) atmosphere of the ‘Raccoon Arms’ – it has been a delight to read your thoughts, and those of your commentators. Enjoy the time you have left and take pride in what you have achieved, it’s more than most of us will ever manage. X.

Although I have never commented, I always read your wise words, which I’ll miss. More than that I’ll miss your humour in the face of adversity and your excellent spelling and grammar. With all my best wishes, Chris

I’ve rarely commented here, or in many other blogs, but your blog was one which I regularly made a point of reading. Refreshing, lively, intelligent and thought-provoking are only a few of the words that spring to mind – often I did not agree with the viewpoints you expressed, but that did not matter, as the writing was so good. Thank you.

It’s become clear recently that, very unfortunately, you would soon probably cease blogging – and so that day has come. Obviously I am sad about this, but even more sad for you and your family. However long or short your remaining time is will I hope be filled with happiness, peace and love.

Good luck to you and all who matter to you.

Bill xx

Thanks Anna for speaking up for the wrongfully accused, when so often we have seemed so alone. Love to you and Mr G.

Adieu & thank you, heartfelt wishes to you & Mr G xx

Anna,

God speed. Vices in mundo and alas, we must turn with it. Ave atque vale. Thank you.

Yhank you Anna, You are a wonderful human being and I will miss you

Thank you Anna, You are a wonderful human being and I will miss you

Ian

Anna, all good wishes and prayers to you, thinking of you & your hubbie. Thank you for opening my eyes. Lots of Love.

I hope your remaining days here are peaceful and spent with those you love and who love you. You have achieved such great things blogging; opening many eyes, certainly mine, to the misinformation and downright lies spread by the MSM. Where once impartial & accurate journalism was the norm decades ago, unlike the cesspit of fabricated, distorted and stolen “news” we suffer today, you have unerringly provided corrections and uncovered many scandals. And all with humour and fine prose – if I had a hat I would doff it to you.
It’s going to be hard to turn on the PC every morning and not go straight to Anna Raccoon, my first port of call, my source of so much reliable information over the years. You have made me both laugh and cry at times, never left me unmoved, but always full of admiration for your keen intelligence and superbly-written acticles. Bless you.

Anna Raccoon. What a life! Thanks for everything.
Mark

We disagreed, and many of the things you’ve wrtten still make me angry. But you played staright with me.

Will miss everything about your writing. Wish there’d been a space and place to meet you in this world. Love and peace.

Thank you for making me laugh, cry, and above all, think! I know you are blessed twice by both loving and being loved –
long may Mr. G be ordered to bring you that morning cup of tea! As others have already posted, your writing and analyses
have touched me on so many levels and my life has been the better for it.

With much affection from a daily reader of your blog, very occasional commenter, but avid admirer. Gods bless you.

Juliet

Yours has been the first blog I’ve read each day, sometimes with a few posts hoarded to have later as a treat. I will miss you very much. Thank you for your intelligent, entertaining and thought- provoking blogging over the years, and my very best wishes to you and Mr. G.

Best wishes and goodbye.

You will never know just how much you have helped this Jonny-Come-Lately through your blog.
Thank you, Ms Raccoon.

You have brought light, brave lady. Thank you and goodbye.

Everything what they’ve said and more.

:o)

Dearest Anna, Although I have never commented on here, I never miss reading your thoughts and the comments from your regulars.
You’ve educated me, made me laugh and more recently made me cry at the thought of everything you have been through…time for some peace and quiet with Mr G…willl miss you so much.
Love and very best wishes to you and Mr G
xx

Suz there are many ways to die, one of the more frightening is simply to stop living. Therefore my wish for you as much living, as much life, with G as you can pack into whatever time remains for you and as the wonders of modern pharmacology allow.

Or as The Bestes Frau’s people say at the end of fairy tales : “and if she hasn’t died then she is still alive today”.

I’ve been lurking around here for some years, don’t think I ever posted any comments before, but I wanted to say thank you and goodbye. I’ve always enjoyed your writing, the strength and compassion (clear-headed tough love compassion, not wishy-washy mushiness), and courage and sheer bloody-minded dedication to the truth. The depth and breadth of your research has been continually amazing; much of it enlightening and frightening in equal measure. Whatever time you have left, I wish you peace and happiness. You’ve raged enough (in a good way), now you deserve to go gently for a while.

As others have said, you have encouraged us to be critical. I am humbly grateful – the internet will be a lesser place without you.

Your writing has always been impressive, and your final posts have had beautiful dignity. I’m glad that you have had the opportunity to say goodbye; it’s the very least that you were owed.

Thank you for so much worthwhile reading. Enjoy your rest and tranquility with Mr G because you have both more than earned it.

All of the above. Many, many thanks Anna and Mr. G and to the customers here. You have been inspirational to me and I shall miss you.

Thank you for provoking me to think.
I write as another Mr G who has lost his beloved. My thoughts are with you and especially with your own loyal and loving Mr G.

Goodbye Anna and thanks for all the hard work you’ve put into researching and analysing over the past few years, and also for your uncompromising honesty in recounting your own story. In these qualities, exercised for no monetary reward, you did the work that mainstream journalists, with their immensely greater resources, should have been doing, if they’d had a fraction of your honesty and courage. You’ve stood almost alone against the modern witch hunt, and I hope that before too many decades have passed your service to the truth will get the recognition it deserves.

I disagree profoundly with many of your right-wing opinions, but all of that is insignificant compared to the good you’ve done by your exposure of the victim culture racket, which BTW is so insulting to the real victims of real abuse. And there’s good research evidence to suggest that your bloody-mindedness has kept you alive and kicking for years longer than if you’d passively submitted to “those who know best.”

So now your work is done, enjoy this life to the last moments of it, with the people closest and dearest to you. You will be missed.

Janets, in the previous comment, has just said everything appreciative that I would have wished to say. You will be greatly missed. But please can you arrange somehow to let us be informed how and when. I am sure that all your readers would wish to know so as to shed an extra tear. Perhaps it is possible to commission a blogging friend or ally to post a suitable notice; I do hope so. Otherwise one is left without “closure”, and this really is needlessly distressing.

I can never forget your advice and support you gave us when my son was diagnosed with cancer of the thyroid. We will miss you deeply. Hopefully there is an after-life and you’ll turn up on my lawn as a Raccoon. You’ll be well looked after.

Can’t tell you how much you have enriched my life, and by extension, as I have shared your blog, hopefully that of others too.
I wish you some time to enjoy with Mr G, and as little pain as possible,
Thank you, on behalf of the silent majority of readers.
<3

Well, I know what I’ll be spending Christmas doing – saving your blog to my hard drive page by page (unless you can let me take a copy of your database – but that’s up to you.)

Anna, I cannot add anything to what so many people have already said. So all I can say is goodbye and sweet passing.

I have expressed the opinion that the landlady should vacate the Raccoon Arms and enjoy retirement with Mr. G on several occasions. Her recent missives detailing her precarious health conditions and the NHS best efforts to hasten her demise makes her decision unexpected.

Mudplugger has said it best, so no need to be repetitive, I have enjoyed my visits here and will miss the mental stimulation it has provided, like the landlady I would like to thank the punters who provided such varied opinions and viewpoints. I have learned a lot, and laughed a lot, there are very few places where you can partake of that now.

I am unbelievably sad that this Blog will cease and that you are taking such a beating from bigC. What a fight you have put up.
I’m sad for myself that I will not have your astonishingly well prepared and well crafted essays to read to open my mind and tell me the truth.. Where do I turn now?
Thank you for all your work. You are an inspiration.
I shall visit as often as usual hoping that someone will explain to me, a computer idiot, how I can capture your articles to stop them disappearing without trace. If I knew how and could afford it I would print them into a book just for my own book shelf. There must be a method.
God bless you and Mr G

Kia Kaha, Ms Raccoon would that all Procyon were as interesting as you!

Already archived here for further use against the kidseX craZed Anglo State systemic mass child abusers for careers, ratings, profit crudely masked by mass deception as so called ‘Child Protection’.

Is Ms Raccon’s great NSPCC/Childline expose, that a VAST 96% of serious child abuses are NOT sexual but NON-sexual with millions of NON-sex serious child abuse victims about whom the kidseX craZed phoney Anglophone doesn’t give a damn!

A parting thought, for worthy ringtail Racoon rightly damning ye ancient Anglo anti-social/anti-Christ heirarchy, is that post-Reformation sub-Christian Popes have been far more pro-social than serial psycho killer narcissto-fascist Henry and his heirs – including the current anti social Anglo-Saxon Protestant asshole Mein Trumpf!

https://williamblum.org/chapters/rogue-state/united-states-bombings-of-other-countries

Sad to see it end, Anna. I’m just a blow in but I had great fun while it lasted. I haven’t visited many blogs but I can’t imagine anyone being a patch on the Landlady.

Every blessing.

Please don’t delete this site, Anna. Even if you put it under an embargo, it should be preserved. I think it has historical importance in the way you have used it, and its consequent relation to the world of concrete reality. I have struggled to put my finger on it, which is why I think it is vital to keep it for future study by a more agile intelligence than mine.

I wish I would have had the time to contribute, but thoughtful writings deserve thoughtful responses and I become ridiculous in retrospect if I shortcut the journey and simply make stupid jokes. Better just to read, appreciatively – which I have.

Thanks for using your gifts so unsparingly.

You are a remarkable woman and you wrote a fascinating blog. Thank you for caring and writing with passion. Few can write passionately and yet with style. You did. A life well lived.

Goodbye Anna, enjoy

You have been in my life for many years. Thank you so much. I wish you………….peace.

With love to you and Mr G.

I am (selfishly) so sad there is to be no more of this blog – the very best in balance, depth, honesty and astuteness. So very refreshing and a real privilege to read and share in the comments. Very best wishes Anna for more time, and the happy fulfilled time you deserve.

Adieu Anna, ravi d’avoir fait ta connaissance.

As an avid reader rather than a contributor: I will miss the leavening of common-sense, honesty, compassion, principles and wit your blog has contributed. May the time you and Mr G have left together pass in love and peace.

Thank you and goodbye.

I wish you the very best of everything, even if the future looks bleak due to health reasons.

May you by miracle of God still be here, even if not in the internet, this same time next year and the year after and the year after for many years to come.

You do well to delete it all at the end, regardless of the cost reason, but because your work here and of the others has been an impression into the sea of time and for future history to not fully know the source from whence certain strong ideas and awareness originated, yet it will have done so.

Best of health, even though it is not a good prognosis, maybe that change into something better for you and you be free from additional pain, grief or sorrow over it.

So sad you’re leaving us, but surprised you shared so much with us and for so long. Fare thee well, it has been a joy and a privilege.

As they say in the ould country Anna, May your road rise up to meet you.
And thank you for your honesty.

A long time lurker. I wish you the most wonderful time, curled up, twll dyn to the troublemakers and stirrers and bearers of ill will.

I have always found your writing engaging, even if I don’t agree, but you almost convince me!

All the best to you and yours.

A Hoaxteader

I can only add my best wishes and immense gratitude to those already expressed above. Your writing has often made me laugh, sometimes frown, but always think. I am very sad to know that there will be no more Raccoon tales.

I fee hugely privileged to have been informed of your experiences, in your younger lives and in your recent health travails. Our loss will be your Valhalla’s gain. May you have love and peace, and an easy passing.

Thank you.

Dear Anna, dear G.,

We were following you through this blog.
We have also left Dordogne and have a sweet little Olympe. In reference to Olympe de Gouges. I am certain you will appreciate this one!
All our thoughts to you both, if there is anything we can do, you know how to reach us.
Thank you for our long chats and laughs.
We hope for another post. Hope.
Xx
Arianne , Alexandre and Olympe

“If we do meet again, why, we shall smile. If not, why then this parting was well made.”

Farewell, Anna; it’s been a blast!

Sorry to hear you are retiring. Thank you for your blog which I have enjoyed and been educated by for many years.
Best wishes for the future.

John

Peace and Love to you and heartfelt thanks for your magnificent and inspirational writing. I’ve really enjoyed reading your blog, Anna. Best wishes to you and Mr. G.

Farewell Anna and thank-you for so much. A bright star is lost from the heavens.

Where I have nothing to add to what others have already said, I usually add nothing. But in the circumstances I might just say something, howbeit in doing so I still add nothing.

This is the only blog I follow: I shall miss it; a fortiori Mme. Raccoon, whose determined investigations of some of the worst elements of our society, tempered by what she insists is Scouse humour, has kept us for so long fascinated, entertained and often horrified.

Thank you, Mr. G., for your care. Curl up well and warm, little raccoon; see you at the rainbow bridge.

ΠΞ

Anna – you have surpassed expectations and have hung on despite the battles you have had to fight. You deserve rest from the cut and thrust of the blogosphere after all these years. I have always enjoyed your wit and your incisiveness in your writing – as well as your fearless pursuit of fairness on behalf of those who have been unjustly pilloried. God bless you.

What can I say? You have battled on with humour and grim determination and have championed those who have been pilloried by the msm. You deserve a rest. God bless and keep you and make His face to shine upon you.

Been reading here for years now, although rarely commented. You provoked much thought and gave me a different perspective on so many subjects.

Actually crying now as this really is goodbye…

With much love to you, Mr G and to all your many friends in real life and on the blog, Lx

Actually crying now that this is really goodbye.

Thank you for everything, the fresh perspectives and the good humour and so much more.

With much love to all, Lx

To Anna Raccoon

At the end of each day, tapping away,
Wrapped up in your warm winter woollies,
You’re leaving too soon, dear Anna Raccoon,
Bane of benighted, beer-bellied, bald bullies.

The blogs first were cheery, poignant and sharp,
And the ripples stayed with me awhile,
The mood music darkened a little at times,
But there was never any dimming your smile.

Drawn like a moth to a parchment aflame,
Ensnared, enchanted, emboldened I came,
To witness a hero, my hero, with her warrior’s heart,
With a voice wielding power – a mighty truth-seeking art.

The humour and punchlines were deeply imbued
The tales refreshing; heartfelt comments ensued
Every word, every line, every subordinate clause,
Targeted injustice, abuse and highly-gamed laws.

Mirth and joy, sorrow and sadness was shared,
Yet no subject, playful pun or pundit was spared,
And the forum stayed gracious, friends remained firm,
Though the occasional turn of phrase made me squirm.

By the jokes and ripostes, the banter bawdy and brave,
From the rich company here (that dare not misbehave),
I was enchanted, overawed by the superlative sarc’,
So this silent spirit shied away, seldom leaving a mark,

If the darkness is coming, know your legend yet grows
A Raccoon standing tall on the tips of her toes
Talents and spirit undimmed to the end
Outstanding, inspiring, an indomitable friend

Know you’re surrounded by friends loyal and true,
And your scattered false foes are fearful and few.
——————————————————————–
I grieve a great gaping void, where once our spirits were buoyed,
For this home from home, with its merry comrades-in-arms,
Its loss pains me, much more than many others that went,
And I thank you – my education here, a time truly well spent.

Peace and Respect
(and apologies – for not being up to the standard of your regulars)

I shall miss you and your blog. In a world which seems to become increasingly hysterical and deranged, this has been a place to come for a bit of sanity. I’ve learned a lot. Goodbye and thank you, and my very best wishes for your future.

Ah Finally!
I was beginning to think God (or the Vatican) had arranged a DDOS attack. I kept getting strange messages, all of which tried to blame my browser.
(What were you thinking; hosting your page in Utah of all places?! All that salt does make the ground electrically conductive, just waiting for a thunderbolt to smite the unwary….
I can well understand your desire to quit on a reasonably high note. I have personally witnessed the demise of two regular posters (on completely unrelated forums), and it was very like what happened with my father and my wife’s mother; they simply didn’t realize that what they were saying no longer made any sense.
It does sound like you have a fair way to go before that happens, but as you point out, whatever time you have left surely belongs to those you hold dearest.
I haven’t been a subscriber for long, but your blog has affected me more than other.
Thank you for caring when nobody else seemed to.

I will miss this blog so much (it’s the only one I follow). You are a true friend to those who have been falsely accused of abuse and have found themselves isolated; a doughty fighter who has even made it possible for people to sometimes laugh at their tormentors. Every time said villains are whacked with the thunderbolt of truth, I will picture you chucking it with pinpoint accuracy.

Bless you Anna for all that you are and all that you have done. Travel peacefully and know that many, many people are thinking of you and Mr G.

The Last Furlong wrote, “You are more than you know.” It reminds me of a line at the end of a dozen Wordsworth sonnets, “We feel that we are greater than we know”. Your courage to keep going when adversity strikes gives me courage.

I haven’t sent a lady a poem before; this is from Wordworth’s “The River Duddon” sent with love, respect and prayers to both of you.

I thought of Thee, my partner and my guide,
As being past away. – Vain sympathies!
For, backward, Duddon! as I cast my eyes,
I see what was, and is, and will abide;
Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;
The Form remains, the Function never dies;
While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,
We Men, who in our morn of youth defied
The elements, must vanish; – be it so!
Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour;
And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,
Through love, through hope, and faith’s transcendent dower,
We feel that we are greater than we know.

You startled me and made me think Anna.

You’ve raged for long enough. Go gently now into the dying light.

Love to you and Mr G.

I have been a long time lurker. For myself, very sad that you are saying goodbye. Your posts are always thought provoking and your determination to show the truth is, unfortunately, a rare thing today. You and your blog will be greatly missed. Good-bye and good luck. D.V.

Farewell Anna, ’twas a please to read you.

I can’t bear to think of this blog disappearing. If there was a way to fund it, to pay the host in Utah, would that have your blessing?

This site should be preserved and re-read and newly discovered by fresh readers. Surely there are enough willing to contribute to its upkeep? Of course, if you want it to disappear, that is your perogative, and it’s probably not uppermost in your mind atm anyway, but as others have said, this is your creation, your work, a substantial achievement and your voice and intellect lives in it and touches others and will continue to do so if the blog is maintained.

I’m not a regular. Just an occasional visitor. You have accomplished something wonderful here.

Thank you.

To live in the hearts and minds of those we leave behind is not to die.
You are a big spirit Anna who, even by those who have never met you, will be remembered with only the best of emotions.
Safe journey when the time comes.

Such sad news. A great lady Warrior retires from the battlefield.