Travels With Loreena McKennitt - by Niema Ash

The story behind this book is a good one. Niema Ash was Loreena McKennits assistant and confidant for many years. This book however broke up the friendship, and landed up in court, if fact it made it all the way to the House Of Lords (the brit version of the US Supreme Court). In the end the book was pulled from publication, and all copies destroyed. Well not quite all copies, there is one in the British Library, and they refuse to relinquish it.

And there is one sitting on my kitchen table! Mine is even signed by the author!

So what was the furor about? Loreena felt that her privacy had been violated, particularly the sections describing the death of her fiance.

The book also goes into some detail about Loreena McKennitt's management style, which is at odds with the Celtic Goddess image that she likes to portray in public.

Personally I did not find the revelations particularly shocking, but I did find the court case to be of great significance. Most people agree that McKennitt would not have prevailed had the case been heard in the US, but the UK system works a little different.

The shocking part of this case was that the facts stated in the book were not called into question. Everything Niema Ash claimed, stands as true. McKennitt merely objected to the publication!

This creates a very murky precedent, that should have every news organization very worried.

Want a copy? Well I found one for sale.