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.

My friend lent me all three books some time ago, I read about a third of the first one and put it down. I havent yet returned them because my friend will ask if I enjoyed them and want to discuss them and I don't have the heart to tell her I stopped reading because I simply didn't like Raynor, something just felt off (but how could that be, she's such an inspiration and the books are such a great success, have you no heart) I now feel vindicated and can give my friend her books back with a clear conscience, thank you for sharing op 😊

I have to admit I was taken in and have defended this pair in the past.
I am too trusting and, when I think back the bit about losing the house was so woolly I couldn't get it straight in my head at the time.

This has taught me a lesson to trust my instinct more and if I can't square something in my head there is probably something off.

I simply didn't like Raynor

Yes, this too. I'd told myself it was because she needed to be fierce to overcome what life had thrown at her. In truth it was just that she's a wrong 'un.

Interesting, my contract is with Amazon - they need to pursue Penguin if they issue mass refunds.

Can I just say, would it matter if the books were fictional? Does it change anything? I enjoyed the books as fiction, some things in there didn’t appear to make sense, but I glossed over it as I liked the story. Could it be that we as a national are too invested in everything being completely unbiased when autobiographies will never be like this, they will never be an unbiased, completely factual account.

That may have partly been due to your training on MN. We learn how to read between the lines and sniff out a wrong un don’t we?

To me it matters because they were selling an inspirational true story about overcoming hardship. When actually they were lying all the way through. Now I am also wondering if they even walked the thing.

to me the biggest problem is the possible health fraud as pp have mentioned. If it was fiction that would be seen as fantasy but as it is non fiction it is fraud

claiming that walking long distance cures him is awful and deserves to be called out and clarified.

Ignoring the criminality, yes it would matter to those of us with neurological conditions. We are always battling against the myth that we can exercise ourselves better. Or think ourselves better. Or magically eat the right food and get better.

It's such a dangerous myth and means we go without the support and understanding we deserve

She embezzled her employer out of £60,000!!! And they owe other people money.

She disappeared after the police bailed her.

How much of a criminal does she need to be?

Then they should have sold it as fictional. It may not have been as successful then as we expect writing of very high quality from fiction and less so from memoir as it is written in the author’s “true” voice. A huge aspect of the success of a book like this one is due to it being real. The fact that it is also about a cancer sufferer raises the emotional stakes and reader investment. They have committed fraud. I am not surprised the publishers and film company won’t comment - they have been taken in. Grifters the lot of them.

Fuck, I was completely taken in and have defended them and the book when discussing it with people who instinctively didn't like her or who smelled a rat.

Like many PPs have said, I think the worst part of this is that Salf Path has played a significant part in the narrative that people can think and exercise their way out of serious physical conditions.

I hope they face consequences for this.

Great reporting and investigation from the Observer. Well done.
what a pair of liars and criminals that couple are. This needs wider publicity, any proceeds from their books taken from them and given to their victims and CDB charity.
Penguin should scrap all this couples books and get them withdrawn from booksellers.

Wouldn’t it be as in TiMOTHy?

And it also perpetuates the cruel and dangerous myth that your ill health is all your own fault.

I've just posted on another thread...
When I read the book I had questions about the story of how they lost their house - it made them sound foolish and idealistic.

And they were neither...

I think what I found odd was that upon being made homeless - they set off on a walk around the coast. I thought in my own mind that as I have worked on front line for housing and homeless this was possibly giving a different angle and I expect people to turn up for help and not go off walking. Though obviously I know a lot of people (through my line of work) who have lived in tents in quiet areas of town and the surrounding areas

Perhaps we should all send our copies back to Penguin's head office and ask for a refund? Obviously the chances of getting one are minimal but it would mean they couldn't ignore this or underestimate how strongly people feel about being so cruelly misled about the medical aspect of the story.

From the Country Living article, describing settling down after the first walk

I was anxious, too, and struggled to trust people. Villagers were curious about who I was and where I'd come from, so I became withdrawn as a result.

Hmm. Could that be because you had something to hide and were no longer in perpetual movement? After all the speculation about the improbable circumstances of them becoming homeless I'm not surprised and now just wonder what else they have lied about.

Wow! This is bonkers! I remember being so incensed on their behalf that I was trying to find out who the friend was that 'ripped them off' but there was nothing online - they seemed to be very forgiving and have the patience of saints to have put up with it all! Also when she was on The One Show with Jason Isaacs, who plays Moth in the film, he was very angry on their behalf and insisted on saying they had been swindled, when Raynor Winn was being vague about it all!
It takes some chutzpah to have swindled your employer, beg them not to prosecute you and then write a book about it portraying yourself as the victim! Staggering!

Just found this accompanying article in the Observer which debunks the story claim by claim.

The real Salt Path: what’s in the book, and what The Obse... share.google/JUcpBSsfnfzbXO6Fy

The rip off didn't make sense though. Companies are limited liability, entirely so you never have to pour good money after bad.
Not did the court story. If they had found some compelling evidence the judge would have admitted it, however last minute.

Don't give them ideas!

Two things spring to mind.

Firstly, it amazes me that people know of these unsavoury characters but somehow don’t do anything about it. Everyone near them in Wales, some in Cornwall, the relatives, their 2 children.. No-one breathes a word beyond putting anonymous notes in 2nd book shop books!

Secondly, Penguin will be delighted this morning as more publicity is generated. Ditto the film - they’ve guaranteed renewed interest. I’d go so far as to say they don’t do their research on purpose but like stories like this to emerge later.

I’m not surprised, not read it but there’s great incentive these days to make shit up for misery/redemption memoirs.

The real story behind novel “Where the Crawdad’s Sing” is even worse.