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

no - it does not seem credible. Certainly "Grant" / Warren Evans says this was not true.

Thank you for being here Chloe 👏🏻
I’ve been angry about the false health claims and the way that Bill Cole was treated so badly, for no reason. I think the books have been damaging, not only with real life repercussions for people like Bill who’ve helped them from the goodness of their own hearts but other people who have potentially gone against medical advice because if it worked for Moth, it must work for me. My question is, why haven’t the publisher and some re-sellers stopped marketing the book as “unflinchingly honest”?

Hi, Chloe thanks for all your work on this, it's been shocking and enlightening.
My question is what do you think Tims role is in all of this, given that Sally has been the one telling the story and committing the alleged crimes and putting out that TW was dying.
Do you think he knew and colluded in it ? / is he driving the narrative do you think ? It seems that they are an almost overwhelmingly co dependant couple, and it's this which is fascinating to many of us .
Many of us are interested in their motives... I all seems so strange especially as his 'illness' has been posited by Sally as undergoing a miracle cure from walking
Has your conversation with their family members given you any clue?

Its been amazing watching the in depth analysis on Mumsnet!! I have most certainly ridden the charabanc and partaken of the virtual cider...

Did you get to the bottom of why the CBD charity dissociated themselves from them so quickly?

Also that their family ( the parents they stole from especially) seem so forgiving, and didn't want to cause a fuss .. especially Tim's parents, who lost all their house money and had to stay in S&TWs barn .. Did any of your contacts say anymore about what happened to them after S&T lost the Welsh house?

Does it seem very unlikely now that the homelessness and health condition diagnosis happened in the same week?

I am still shocked and appalled that the Christopher Bland 'First Book' prize could be so blatantly won by someone who had already written and published a book! Although the rules might not have specified such, surely the title of the prize ought to be a clue?

Huge thanks to @OurChloe for doing this.

I did not manage to do much fact checking of LL - I believe there are fewer specific venues mentioned in this book. I did check with one cafe which she claims did not allow them inside because they were strangers, not from there. The owner disputes this entirely and says she had the same distancing rules for everyone.
Bill and Ruth say the Walkers were away that summer but its not possible to know where they were. Bill asked to join them at various points in their walk but they were not keen so he didn't push it.

I’m shocked at the apparent materialism of them both whilst Moth and Raynor have been marketed as such down to earth hippie folk. All that “Eco warrior” stuff snd the battered copy of Beowulf seems so contrived now. They must have set out to con the public from the get go because that trick always worked for them in the past, the emotional manipulation.

Do you think they actually walked the entire path in one go like the book claims they did?

The organiser of Dulverton Literary festival, a lovely lady called Ali Pegrum contacted me to tell me RW had pulled out because of my article and would I mind standing in for her. I said yes and then the film crew asked if they could come along. I was flabbergasted to find an audience of 200 people - RW had insisted she needed a bigger venue than was being offered so for the first time the festival had commandeered the village church. It was huge and I was pretty nervous!!!

Where do you rank this investigation in terms of your career highlights to date?

I do as do many other people. Its difficult for publishers to check the details of someone's life but I think at very least when miraculous claims are being made about health issues there is a responsibility for publishers to check - it wouldn't be hard to call some experts or ask for evidence of the miracle. But she was such a super star by that point that its likely people were reluctant even if they secretly felt uncomfortable with bits of it.

To answer the disclaimer question which I saw but have now lost -
I do think someone sensible at some point - perhaps a lawyer - decided that they better shaw themselves up legally since there were claims of health miracles in the book. Anything else I have to say on this would be pure speculation.

No idea! Its a very good question that I am unable to answer.

ha!! Its certainly been the biggest hit...totally unexpected I have to say.

No i don't believe they did - in TSP they say they did it in 2 goes - over two summers but I am pretty certain this was not correct and that they did bits over several years and may not have done the whole thing.

Yes. They did lose their house in the summer of 2013. I was able to prove this from Land Registry documents. But there does not seem to be any evidence for a proper diagnosis of CBD at all (at least from the letters we have seen published by RW) and the doctors letters we have seen date from 2 years later - 2015 - and only mention CBD as the closest thing the consultant can think of as matching some of the symptoms but he does not conclusively say it was CBD. Its possible of course that Tim mistakenly believed he had CBD after that consultation. Its much less likely he continued to believe that after further visits to a consultant over the years as claimed in RW's books.

Ok just a last cheeky extra in case there’s time/inclination to answer.

Some you spoke with cast doubt on the health claims - did you speak to anyone who believes TimMoth is physically unwell in any way? (not necessarily CBS or CBD or a specific diagnosis)

It's difficult to believe they set out to perpetrate a giant con - after all, you can't orchestrate writing a bestseller or we would all be at it!! I think she wrote a book and then when it became a huge hit she realised she had a formula. She repeated that and continued to have bestsellers. The message she received over those 7 years from the publishing world was that maybe truth isn't that important... But she was most certainly did continue the deception in her two sequels. I do feel slightly sad that we did not get to read On A Winter's Hill. I wonder what it could have contained. We may never find out...

Have Gillian Anderson & Jason Issacs been in touch? They must be very shocked? Another cheeky second question.

Thanks again - so surprised some of the further revelations today!

OurChloe , I’m very appreciative of how much you are putting into the replies this evening. Have some more fudge and a refill of cider!

Many of us have found the behaviour of the Walkers revealed during your investigation upsetting and shocking.

I am wondering how you felt as the details started to emerge and how it has left you in the end?

Thank you! I love this! Unexpected in terms of the response, or because you hadn't realised how deeply the deception ran and what there was to uncover? Or both maybe?

The neurologists I spoke to told me they did not think he had the symptoms of CBD - without meeting him it is very difficult for them to diagnose him. Some did make the suggestion that he might have "functional neurological disorder." This is an extremely common condition and some studies say up to a third of patient presenting themselves to neurologists as outpatients may suffer with this. It is essentially an umbrella term for a group of symptoms that do not have a neurological, physical cause. They may be brought on by stress, or any number of issues in someone's life. And although they may feel very real to the sufferer they are not caused by issues in the brain.

I must stress that this was a suggestion - I have no evidence that this is what Tim suffers from and I don't think any decent doctor would diagnose him without an in person meeting.