Scan barcode
noonanjohnc's review against another edition
dark
informative
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
zoomar's review
4.0
A terrifying story of a sociopath that fooled a nation.
The author saw Jimmy Savile, a British DJ and TV host, in person as a child and became obsessed with proving that he was not what he seemed to be. He clipped articles and kept a detailed file of everything he said or did in public.
As an adult, Dan Davies was presented with the opportunity to interview him over a number of years and experience his "charm" first hand.
Great insight into the methods of a sociopath on massive scale and on a micro scale. (Google him if you want details)
As others have pointed out, this is not a lurid list of crimes he committed with description but a series of perspectives of people that knew him and the moments he gave tiny glimpses into the darkest parts of his personality.
I read the paperback which has several extra chapters added. Including one about a protege of Savile's that was eventually convicted of a related crime that wasn't mentioned in the first edition because the trial was ongoing.
The author saw Jimmy Savile, a British DJ and TV host, in person as a child and became obsessed with proving that he was not what he seemed to be. He clipped articles and kept a detailed file of everything he said or did in public.
As an adult, Dan Davies was presented with the opportunity to interview him over a number of years and experience his "charm" first hand.
Great insight into the methods of a sociopath on massive scale and on a micro scale. (Google him if you want details)
As others have pointed out, this is not a lurid list of crimes he committed with description but a series of perspectives of people that knew him and the moments he gave tiny glimpses into the darkest parts of his personality.
I read the paperback which has several extra chapters added. Including one about a protege of Savile's that was eventually convicted of a related crime that wasn't mentioned in the first edition because the trial was ongoing.
thebobsphere's review against another edition
4.0
At first I wasn’t going to review this book. After all, I don’t have to document everything. My partner warned me that due to my sensitivity over these matters, I shouldn’t have read the book at all and she was right.
However, I also do believe that as a reader now and then it’s good to challenge oneself now and then and In Plain Sight is a Gordon Burn winner so I thought I’d go for it.
I will say that this is not an easy read. Not due to the writing style but mostly for the content. Although Davies tastefully does not go into graphic detail, there are many scenes which make for uncomfortable reading.
For those who do not know, Jimmy Savile was a pioneering DJ, Sportsman and philanthropist. He also sexually abused over 450 people, male and female ranging from the ages 5 to 75 from the late 60’s to 2009 (he died in 2011). Yet he was seen as Britain’s national treasure, with even Prince Charles as a close confidante. Due to his connections in high places he was able to get away with everything. When there was a problem his ‘friends’ would deal with it quietly.
When he died, a good number of his victims spoke up, leading to a nationwide investigation, which also made some startling discoveries.
Dan Davies divides his book into three main narratives. One is a biography of Savile, in an attempt to find the roots of his problems, the other is the allegations and the build up of Operation Yewtree. The third is the author’s own experiences with Savile, as he had interviewed and traveled with him for a number of years.
The final picture we readers get is one of a master manipulator, a money hungry psychopath, devoid of all emotions. A charmer, but one with an agenda. It is evident that he knew what he was doing and his charitable acts were a source of atonement. The author’s aim was to reveal the real side of Savile and he manages. There are some passages where he puts in some personal emotion and expresses disgust at his eating habits or his predatory habits.
In Plain Sight is a thoroughly researched work and is well written. As a disclaimer there are a good number of disturbing scenes and I would not recommend it as a casual read but if you are interested in investigative pieces or how one person can fool a nation through sheer manipulation then go ahead.
However, I also do believe that as a reader now and then it’s good to challenge oneself now and then and In Plain Sight is a Gordon Burn winner so I thought I’d go for it.
I will say that this is not an easy read. Not due to the writing style but mostly for the content. Although Davies tastefully does not go into graphic detail, there are many scenes which make for uncomfortable reading.
For those who do not know, Jimmy Savile was a pioneering DJ, Sportsman and philanthropist. He also sexually abused over 450 people, male and female ranging from the ages 5 to 75 from the late 60’s to 2009 (he died in 2011). Yet he was seen as Britain’s national treasure, with even Prince Charles as a close confidante. Due to his connections in high places he was able to get away with everything. When there was a problem his ‘friends’ would deal with it quietly.
When he died, a good number of his victims spoke up, leading to a nationwide investigation, which also made some startling discoveries.
Dan Davies divides his book into three main narratives. One is a biography of Savile, in an attempt to find the roots of his problems, the other is the allegations and the build up of Operation Yewtree. The third is the author’s own experiences with Savile, as he had interviewed and traveled with him for a number of years.
The final picture we readers get is one of a master manipulator, a money hungry psychopath, devoid of all emotions. A charmer, but one with an agenda. It is evident that he knew what he was doing and his charitable acts were a source of atonement. The author’s aim was to reveal the real side of Savile and he manages. There are some passages where he puts in some personal emotion and expresses disgust at his eating habits or his predatory habits.
In Plain Sight is a thoroughly researched work and is well written. As a disclaimer there are a good number of disturbing scenes and I would not recommend it as a casual read but if you are interested in investigative pieces or how one person can fool a nation through sheer manipulation then go ahead.
stopsatgreen's review against another edition
4.0
A very interesting read; the author interviewed Savile on many occasions before his death - and before the scale of his crimes was known (although there were always rumours). The book covers Savile’s life, the timeline of the story of the TV expose, and the testimony of many victims and witnesses of his attacks.
What becomes clear is that many people were aware of what Savile was doing for many years, although whether through complicity, corruption (to the very highest levels), or fascination with celebrity, nobody told. When victims did approach people in authority, they were ignored.
This book isn’t just hastily cobbled together, it’s obviously been in progress for some time, although because the investigation is still ongoing there are frustrating ommissions and occasional repetition as the book is rewritten to accommodate new evidence. And Savile himself is an expert at manipulation and obfuscation, so some stories will, unfortunately, never be told; hints of corruption and murder will likely never be resolved one way or another.
It’s well written (I read almost the whole thing in a single long-distance flight), and while it isn‘t a classic true crime book, it’s more than a cheap cash-in and goes a long way in showing how crimes of this magnitude were hidden for so long: really, they weren’t; we just chose to look the other way.
What becomes clear is that many people were aware of what Savile was doing for many years, although whether through complicity, corruption (to the very highest levels), or fascination with celebrity, nobody told. When victims did approach people in authority, they were ignored.
This book isn’t just hastily cobbled together, it’s obviously been in progress for some time, although because the investigation is still ongoing there are frustrating ommissions and occasional repetition as the book is rewritten to accommodate new evidence. And Savile himself is an expert at manipulation and obfuscation, so some stories will, unfortunately, never be told; hints of corruption and murder will likely never be resolved one way or another.
It’s well written (I read almost the whole thing in a single long-distance flight), and while it isn‘t a classic true crime book, it’s more than a cheap cash-in and goes a long way in showing how crimes of this magnitude were hidden for so long: really, they weren’t; we just chose to look the other way.
bodger's review against another edition
4.0
A full and frank take on the life of Jimmy Savile. Researched throughout his life, and finished afterwards when revelations about his private life came to light. A thorough take on a terrible person.
lizbarr's review against another edition
4.0
A grim read, covering Savile's career as entertainer and child rapist, but not exploitative or sensationalist.
I picked this up hoping for some insight into how Savile passed himself off as a respectable member of society, and the answer seems to be, he cosied up with the establishment (the BBC, the royal family, the Conservative party) and ensured that his version of the story was always out there first. Not exactly reassuring, but valuable.
Additionally, this is one of the few biographies where the author's relationship with the subject is a major issue, where I DIDN'T wind up disliking the author. Though he spent much of his childhood and youth hating Savile, on finally meeting him, he seems to have somewhat fallen under the man's spell as much as anyone else, and is honest enough to say so.
I picked this up hoping for some insight into how Savile passed himself off as a respectable member of society, and the answer seems to be, he cosied up with the establishment (the BBC, the royal family, the Conservative party) and ensured that his version of the story was always out there first. Not exactly reassuring, but valuable.
Additionally, this is one of the few biographies where the author's relationship with the subject is a major issue, where I DIDN'T wind up disliking the author. Though he spent much of his childhood and youth hating Savile, on finally meeting him, he seems to have somewhat fallen under the man's spell as much as anyone else, and is honest enough to say so.
philippurserhallard's review against another edition
2.0
As one might expect this was a bleak and depressing read, but it was also a frustrating one. Davies has done thorough research (including spending some time with his subject before his death and subsequent abject discrediting), and as a result his catalogue of Savile's crimes is as unrelenting as his reporting of the constant stream of patter, boasting anecdotes and weak jokes with which he successfully concealed them. The book is well researched, but not well-written - some sentences are awkward and others are incomplete or even ambiguous.
And, of course, the subject matter is consistently horrifying.
I'm not a "true crime" reader, but like most of my generation I knew Savile as a dominating presence in the media throughout my childhood, and I'd hoped from this to get some understanding of why he behaved in the ways he did, how it must have felt for him to spend his entire life in deception or denial, and how he was able to make authorities including the BBC, the government and the royal family complicit in his crimes. Davies is good on the last point (though there are still some accounts of complicity which simply beggar belief), but on the first has little to offer beyond speculation. (Was Savile himself abused as a child? One story he told was of a sexual experience at the hands of an older woman when he was twelve - though typically he made it a boast, rather than an account of abuse - but he was such a habitual and barefaced liar that it's impossible to know what reliance to place on it.) On the second point Davies is unable, to his own frustration, to penetrate past Savile's teflon facade to any sense of his inner life.
Ultimately one is left with a wearying sense of what it felt like to be in Savile's presence when he wasn't raping, molesting and abusing children and women, and an exhaustive awareness of the extent of his offences - if not of their effect on his victims - but little real understanding of the man.
And, of course, the subject matter is consistently horrifying.
I'm not a "true crime" reader, but like most of my generation I knew Savile as a dominating presence in the media throughout my childhood, and I'd hoped from this to get some understanding of why he behaved in the ways he did, how it must have felt for him to spend his entire life in deception or denial, and how he was able to make authorities including the BBC, the government and the royal family complicit in his crimes. Davies is good on the last point (though there are still some accounts of complicity which simply beggar belief), but on the first has little to offer beyond speculation. (Was Savile himself abused as a child? One story he told was of a sexual experience at the hands of an older woman when he was twelve - though typically he made it a boast, rather than an account of abuse - but he was such a habitual and barefaced liar that it's impossible to know what reliance to place on it.) On the second point Davies is unable, to his own frustration, to penetrate past Savile's teflon facade to any sense of his inner life.
Ultimately one is left with a wearying sense of what it felt like to be in Savile's presence when he wasn't raping, molesting and abusing children and women, and an exhaustive awareness of the extent of his offences - if not of their effect on his victims - but little real understanding of the man.