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.

Bet the film makers are relieved this came out after the film's release! Most people have already seen it, imagine if it was due to be released next week!

Sound like thieving con artists, bouncing from one con to another by the sound of it. Akin to the degenerates who claim they or their children have cancer to garner money and sympathy.

The book itself never sat right with me. It didn't come over as genuine.

I thought it was ghost written, for various reasons, like not keeping a diary but being able to recount everything later in the book.

Maybe it WAS ghost written or at least with a huge amount of editing and publisher's input to make it sellable.

One thing I’ve learned from all the documentaries about people who lie about sickness is that they never want to pay their old debts when they get wealthy. Even though it would be the smart thing to do.

The relative didnt come forward because he died before the book was published....

I see this as no different from someone who gets a job based on a fake CV. There have been cases where the person has been prosecuted for fraud and had to pay back their earnings, as well as losing the job. In one fairly recent case, one was a senior police or fire officer iirc. What are the chancers going to do to get out of that? Say, "obviously some details were fictionalised for dramatic reasons"? Self-obsessed, lying arseholes the pair of them, whilst painting themselves as so hard done to. The audacity of them. How did they possibly think this wouldn't come out? I mean I'd never heard of them, the both or the film until this morning, but flipping heck.

Things like this are really damaging to the social contract - the idea that if you work hard and are honest you will do well in life, be able to afford a place to live and raise a family. That if you do your bit you will be rewarded.

That's not true for so many in the UK, especially young people.

And then they see people like "Ray and Moth" becoming millionaires by basically going for a walk and telling their story. To top it all up they allegedly lied and stole to get there. But they got away with it and are celebrated and praised by media, give talks, go on premieres with movie stars etc.

It's like truth doesn't matter. Once again (thinking about Trump, Brexit, Iraq WMD etc). This erodes people's faith in each other and in institutions and destroys social cohesion.

You’d have thought Penguin would have learned their lesson about due diligence after the Belle Gibson fiasco, but it seems not.

They are a pair of criminals.

Wait! What????

The real story sounds better than the book!

I've been cautious about talking about my diagnosis of fibromyalgia and CFS to anyone. So many people, including doctors, say you need to exercise your way out of it. It's not always that straightforward. I do exercise - yoga and walking but to attempt a lengthy coast path hike and wild camping at my age (60) would just about finish me off. I have good fairly pain free days like today and days when everything hurts and the fatigue is overwhelming. I cannot imagine attempting such an arduous walk as the SWCP with a newly diagnosed severe neurological disorder, having no idea how it would be in those conditions.

I read the book when it came out and saw the film recently. I didn't doubt its veracity at the time (it slipped past my bullshit radar) but now I'm just astounded at how she thought they were going to get away with it and never get found out. Clearly she must have thought the NDA referred to in the article was so watertight that nothing would get out.

I really wanted to like the book and gave them the benefit of the doubt but she wasn’t very likeable and they were irritating…. Like forgetting to take Moth’s medication with them (which was portrayed in the film as him deciding not to take it anymore).

They were unkind about almost everyone they met with that weird sense of entitlement.

Would be very interesting to hear from anyone they met on the path.

Things like this are really damaging to the social contract

Generally crime does in fact pay...

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/a64976957/raynor-winn-the-salt-path-interview/

This is from a month ago - he's looking well.

Can I just say, well done to The Observer and good journalism!

The reporter was professional, thoughtful, balanced and thorough. All in the public interest.

Bet The Guardian regret selling off The Observer now. They always were strong on investigative journalism

I liked the book because it was about Cornwall, but was always very sceptical about the opening premise. It seemed to be very glossed-over in the narrative.

My original take on it was that they had knowingly invested and had that investment been successful then they would have been delighted to take any cash payout from their friend. But it went wrong and they quickly jumped to casting themselves in the role of victims.

But you also have to look at their lifestyle beforehand. Reading between the lines neither seemed to be working full-time, they weren’t actually farming and they just seemed to be living on the proceeds of a holiday rental. But it’s a story seen on Mumsnet all the time: people get absorbed in living a time-consuming way of life that doesn’t particularly bring in an income but seems to carry its own inherent virtues or rewards. It works fine when a couple is in their thirties or forties alongside raising young children, but then they wake up in their mid-fifties when the choices of life hit home and wonder why they haven’t got any money. Some people knuckle down at this point, other people decide that someone, something or the world has done them an injustice.

I also didn’t like some of their attitudes towards land ownership and wonder if they would have been so happy to have random itinerant walkers camping on their land…

“I'm just astounded at how she thought they were going to get away with it and never get found out. Clearly she must have thought the NDA referred to in the article was so watertight that nothing would get out.”

well she changed their names, waited till after the key players were all dead and was publishing into the memoire/ travel genre which is pretty niche. She probably thought there wasn’t a hope in hell of anyone putting two and two together.

Later, once it became a bestseller and then turned into a film, it was probably a case ego making her think she was untouchable now.

where do they live now?

Re: refunds to readers: this is what happened when James Frey was found out( the book is still in print to this day, though):

Million Little Pieces may cost publishers millions in refunds | World news | The Guardian https://share.google/tGMvYiot3lUTYxfGI

I wonder if the people they allegedly met whilst out walking are those people they did over or they feel wronged them in some way? Got to wonder if they ever did the walks.

I thought she came across as unpleasant in the book. Hated the two of them, and thought she was rude about Wales. Not remotely surprised.

It was a shit ghost writer if so 😂. Although there are some beautiful passages, most of it is whining and repetitive. Or at least it was as far as I got before giving up.

The irony of their attitude towards land ownership when it now appears they also have property in France...

Another one who is feeling vindicated - we read this in my book club and I hated it. The story about losing their house didn't make sense and the way she bitched about the friend that put them up for a while was awful. you'd have thought Penguin might have leant their lesson from the Belle Gibson debacle.

Yes- my consultant said 'do 20 minutes of gentle walking or swimming every day no matter how bad you feel' Well yesterday (walk) that had me collapse and vomit within 10 minutes and i had to call DH to come fetch me. Then I slept all afternoon. I saw the film before my diagnosis and even then I was thinking 'No way'.