To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The real Salt Path: how the couple behind a bestseller le...

I read Raynor Winn's book The Salt Path and her other two books. I was looking forward to seeing the film at some point and to reading her next book. I felt sorry to read about the challenges the couple had faced, especially with regard to losing their family home and with Moth's health. Now, having read the article in today's Observer, I feel a bit stunned and am not sure what to think.

Another one who read it in their book club (seriously was it just book clubs that drove the sales?!) and thought the legal side was obviously not 100% honest. The scale of it though!

and they had a property in france so always had somewhere else to go /an asset they could have sold to help towards their debts.

I read it for a Book Group and as soon as I read the fudged 'we made a bad investment and lost our home' bit in the opening pages, and it was never referred to again, I had a very strong gut feeling that I was in the hands of a grifter. I wouldn't have been at all surprised to find that the whole thing was invented. The book has a plaintive whine of victimhood and I hated it. Unfortunately everyone else in the book group loved it and thought I was horrible for refusing to believe the story. Glad to be vindicated!

I found the film an absolute snoozefest.

I do hope that mechanic gets his money back!

@TwiceForLunch I have said it on here many times but there is a narrative that has sprung up that healthy eating/lifestyle means you won't get any chronic disease or cancers. I particularly see it in young people. I think a lot comes from BS on social media, it's dangerous.

She has supposedly made about 4mill from The Salt Path!

Will be up shit creek again if it needs paying back!

I always thought this was bullshit. Ive walked a lot of the SW coast path and its full of people on expensive tours having their luggage moved from hotel to B and B on the way having expensive lunches and cream teas at NT places (which is fine, why I like it), not homeless people camping out.

Well, now she can repay all the people she's stolen from!

Yes I thought the same -can’t wait for next tines book club! I pointed out at the time that I hoped she’d repaid the people she stole from once she got the money from the book.

him applying for university whilst walking with just an old mobile seemed very unlikely having done an application a few years before and know how much stuff I had to dig out /write up.

Re the facts not emerging publicly before, I guess the unnamed relative who lent the money at 18% wouldn't have wanted to publicise that fact, as he also comes out badly.

We questioned that too, as the win for wild camping on Dartmoor was in the news at the time.
Again, we assumed on the basis that unless you are actually caught in the act, you will get away with it.

Re the facts not emerging publicly before, I guess the unnamed relative who lent the money at 18% wouldn't have wanted to publicise that fact, as he also comes out badly.

tbf who knows what they told him!

The trouble is when one part of the story is found to be a lie, it’s hard to know how much of the rest is true.
i think they probably did the walk.
The biggest issue is “Moth’s” illness.
if that’s a lie it’s massive - and the only way he can prove it isn’t is by releasing his medical notes.

Yes, what a shame as the first book was a great read; I haven't read the others, and glad now. I was always a bit skeptical about Moth's apparent recovery, that seemed a bit odd 'wish fulfillment' to me, so I had wondered.

I suppose con artists are pretty creative people!

My brain is fried reading the article. Can't make head or tail of it. You lot have clearer thinking than me this morning. I've not had coffee yet. Maybe it's that ?!

There’s a video at the end

Plenty of wild camping goes on there, my own family have done it. You would be less likely to come across it as they move on early in the day. And you wouldn’t know if they were doing it recreationally or were homeless.

This is why I only lasted 4 sessions of book group.

Had a massive disagreement over a book which I thought was crap and everyone else loved.

Realised I was wasting my precious reading time on books I actively disliked and going to a group to be told I wasn't as kind/sensitive as the rest of the group.

Also being a doctor kind of ruins this sort of book. If diagnosed with an illness that primarily affects your ability to walk, how are you walking a coastal path or wild camping? Does the book ever mention him falling over/getting stuck more or less continuously?

Well she was about to be charged with stealing £60K so maybe the relative felt a charge of 18% interest was a fair swop for not going to prison! Also it may not have been the first time this relative had to bale them out.

I suspect the relative didn’t come forward because they were family and didn’t want to be the ones who went to the press.

I suppose the film coming out brought it to a wider audience. And a lot of people probably didn't really know how to go about exposing them, or want to risk it when they have made so much from it and could take legal action. An investigative journalist approaching them makes it much easier to do.

I read all three books and enjoyed them, it had special resonance as I was diagnosed with a neurological disease last year. I hadn't got as far as buying a tent but it sort of gave me a bit of hope. Sort of explains the incident when they get given a farm in the second book and somebody sprays the words "scum" all over it and puts glue in the locks. Raynor/Sally could think of why anyone would do that!

Agree M&M is a really well written book. I went to a book reading by the author - she did lots of research but had never stepped foot on a yacht. Not sure about heartwarming? I wanted to kill Maurice myself at several points!

Plenty of people wild camp along the path, they’re just well hidden or they’re up and off very early.

I've just sent that to my friend who's a big fan of the book as she lives in Cornwall.

This! I don't think we can blame Jason Isaacs when those who should have investigated further didn't- Penguin books and the film producers.