The Walkers did method one other Pwllheli-based Welsh language bookshop with copies of How Not To Dal Dy Dir, and that bookshop stocked 5 copies of the novel.
The proprietor stated: “I was interested in the title. But when I looked at the book, I realised it was not what I thought it was. It is quite odd to choose that phrase as the title.
“They did not give it a lot of an opportunity to promote.”
Gangani Publishing tried to market the book online and, in mid 2012, they posted on an online forum called The Accidental Smallholder which is designed to provide support for smallholders and gardeners.
The post said that anyone who bought the book would be entered into a prize draw to win their friend’s house, which they have to let go due to ill health.
Swarbrick, who bought the book after seeing it on this forum, said he vaguely remembered the prize draw, but could not recall the exact details or any communication with the publishers after buying the book.
The details in the online post were not true. The house being raffled off was in fact Raynor and Moth’s own home, Pen Y Maes near Pwllheli.
The couple advertised the home as a prize “supplied freed from mortgage or another authorized or registered cost”.
But according to Land Registry documents the house did have a debt registered against it, as well as a mortgage.
Raynor and Moth had taken a loan from a family member in 2008 after, it is claimed, Raynor embezzled about £64,000 from her former employer Martin Hemmings and needed to pay it back. The debt, which was passed on to another lender in 2010, had an interest rate of 18%.
An attempt to offer a property with debt as a mortgage-free prize could amount to fraud.
But there’s no record of Gangani Publishing being investigated by the local authority, Cyngor Gwynedd.
And, given the time elapsed, the council confirmed they’d no intention of wanting into the matter.
