MNHQ here: AMA with award winning investigative journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou, Weds 28th Jan, 7-9pm

[RhiannonEMumsnet]

Hi there,

We’re delighted to announce an AMA with award winning investigative journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou on Wednesday 28th January, 7-9pm.

Chloe is the Observer’s narrative editor, and she’s best known for her work exploring the story behind Raynor Winn’s memoir The Salt Path - which you can hear more about in this new Observer podcast.

Please post your questions for Chloe below and join her on the thread on Wednesday evening to hear the answers.

As always, please remember our guidelines - one question per user, follow-ups only if there’s time and most questions have been answered, and please keep it civil.

Thanks,
MNHQ

Second question (time permitting): have you spoken with (the real) Simon Armitage or Liz Harding? Thanks again!

Doh - Angela Harding. (My question was posted after the fiancial crash, when mistakes were being made.)

do you think there is any weight or meaning to her IG handle being her pen name from the start (2016) and in the content / sign off from the big issue letter (2017) & did her publisher or agent know her real name?

and - if I can have part two - when Maxine was getting the letters at the Welsh house, were they in their real names or their pen names?

Ruth and Bill did say he mentioned playing for a youth football team - perhaps Blackburn Rovers if I'm not mistaken but that then was something his family also believed may have been true. And he also claimed to have injured his shoulder playing American football in the USA. I don't know what of this is true - it may all be! He also told Ruth and Bill he once herded sheep using cats in South America. That seems less credible!

I doubt Sally Walker would be able to find a new publisher willing to take her on under a new name but I could be wrong. But I think they have been greatly affected by all the negative publicity, both financially and emotionally.

Welcome Chloe!
Great to see you... I'm very excited to see what you have to say. :D

The copy of HNTDDD was found by Olivia one of the producers working for Candour films who made the documentary for Sky. She came across it on US Amazon - only visible with a VPN but the seller was based in the UK.
I can't tell if the changes to the original pre-Penguin manuscript I have seen were made by Penguin or the publicist. But the original is remarkably unchanged save for a few key bits - mother's death, description of 'Polly' kicking them out and description of 'Cooper'. Other than that its pretty much the same.

No I did not. That was one of the more confusing things I thought. She could have tried to make things right with their family once she made so much through the books - but then again an apology and pay back would involve an admission and SW strenuously denies that she ever took any money from family.

Do you mean HNTDDD or Lightly Salted Blackberries (?) Sorry confused :)

I was also confused by this when she said it because the Sunday Times Best Seller list showed that sales went down. But in fact they did have a spike around the time of my first revelations online. ST only measures high street bookshops. So I think there was a difference.

I would be interested to know your views on whether journalists and the media/news channels in the United States are entirely able to do their jobs freely, or whether they are constrained in any way and are either unwilling or unable to report the whole story.

If you get my drift...

Not for me to give such opinions

No idea - some in the publishing industry have told me they think it will be published - perhaps she is rewriting it now. We have to wait and see.

I've seen photos of them on a PSPA fund raiser with SW and TW but I was not able to trace them because I did not ever find out their real names. I have a strong feeling they would remain supportive of their friends if I did find them but you never know!

Lots of questions about HNTDDD so will try to answer as many as I can in this post.
I go into detail about the book in episode 7 of The Walkers podcast - wait or subscribe to hear readings.
I have understood from SW and her legal team that she accepts she did write the novel and they described it as 'crime fiction'. There are other indicators, her descriptions etc that make it clear that the author is SW and that the characters are based on herself and her husband. The female protagonist is called Ellias (Sally backwards phonetically) they have two kids - boy and girl with similar age gap to their real kids. And the plot itself mirrors what really happened in Wales with the alleged theft etc.
I contacted the Royal Society of Literature who hosted the Christopher Bland Prize. Although now the rules state that you must be a first time author who has not self published or published under another name, when Raynor Winn won it those rules were not in place so the RSL told me they felt the prize was still valid.
We also plan to release a short video about HNTDDD in the coming weeks so watch this space.

Its not about the Observer declining to publish something I have brought to them. The entire investigation is a collaborative process with a team working on it so we had long discussions with the editorial team and the lawyer and we reached joint decisions.
We did decide not to publish certain things mainly because we wanted to balance what we felt the public should know and the fact that SW and TW have a right to privacy.
So whenever we felt that it was too sensitive and did not make a material difference to how the public understood the story we left it out. Obviously I can't go into detail about those aspects of the story.

Answering all the questions about our treatment of SW and TW and our decision making:

It is a very difficult thing reporting on someone's life in this way but ultimately we decided that SW had made a personal decision to make the details of her life public and she had benefitted financially from that so that meant a level of scrutiny of those details was fair and in the public interest.
I contacted SW and TW before I really began my investigation and I contacted them at each stage before I made anything public. They were always aware long before the public learnt anything new and they had time to respond, correct or engage on anything I intended to publish.
We published what we believed was in the public interest because readers had been seriously mislead about who this couple were and about the nature of Moth's disease and his ability to cure it. I could not have kept that information to myself in good conscience. People who are not bothered by what is true and what is not are still free to enjoy RW's books and the film - no one is preventing that!
The Observer has not had any legal threats so far.

Her family believe she studied law and started working in the courts as a legal clerk but it is a mystery why she stopped. Wasn't able to get to the bottom of that.

Thanks for doing this Chloe.

Sorry to interpose a question but very interesting that you mention contact with SW's 'legal team' - until very recently it seemed that you had heard nothing from any lawyers instructed by her. I appreciate you may not be able to, but can you say any more about what her lawyers have said?

I believe she worked there for quite a while. 'Anne' her niece told me she understood that Sally allowed family to stay there for free. The lady who sold it around 2000 said Sally was still working there when it was sold on. I am hoping that if the BBC Wales series has a contribution to make it may be to unpick this story - because family members told me they suspected she might have been fired but I could find no evidence of that.

Yes I believe he did but a year after she claims he did in the Wild Silence. I also spoke to a fellow student there who told me Tim told everyone on the course that he was dying of CBD but over the years they were studying, he had a few funny turns and had to leave class but he never deteriorated and so this fellow class mate had some suspicions about how ill he might have been - but they did not want to be interviewed.

I am answering two questions - one about the novel and another about the manuscript, I am sorry if that's not clear!! I am trying very hard to respond to as much as I can here.

Thank you - very much appreciated.

Penguin have been extremely quiet throughout this process. I can perhaps accept that they did not question the better symptoms Moth has after walking in TSP but the huge claims at the end of LL are offered as a miracle and this does seem much harder to swallow - Penguin have not commented on why no one thought to question this.