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.

Nah neither will be delighted, book will most likely have to be pulled; film won’t resonate if it’s bollocks.

Absolutely.

I've tried to find that interview today, but can only find it referenced in an article about them.

Funnily, AI now says his real name is Ray Walker, not Winn, so it's halfway there, and obviously picked up some of this on its travels this morning!

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!

The new 'trusting my gut' me can't square this either.

How has it not come out before? With all the Daily Mail adverts offering money for a story surely someone would have told?

I feel a bit sorry for Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs because as soon as I saw the trailer I thought the film looked like the kind of work that wins awards. There aren’t that many films out there about middle-aged couples.

That said, I won’t be watching the film and will not read the books.

And it seems she wrote another earlier book whose plot is about... a welsh farming couple and their fraudulent City friend. (Buy the book, get a chance to win their land!) Came across her promoting that on a smallholders' forum but people were finding the e-link didn't work...,

I'm glad I only got it on Borrowbox and didn't pay for it! I wouldn't want to line the pockets of liars and thieves.

Yes, I would respect someone who got in a mess but wrote an honest book and repaid all their debts out of the proceeds. But this seems to have started with large-scale thefts from her trusting employer.
My only question is how did they think they would get away with it all?

Or too long on MN. We learn how to sus out the bs.

I hated the book and could not understand why it was a bestseller. They funded their walking holiday from Jobseekeers Allowance whilst very obviously not jobseeking.

And she freely admitted stealing from shops in Cornwall and climbing over campsite fences after dark to pitch their tent and use the facilities without paying, then fuck off before dawn.

So no, I'm not remotely surprised by this story. She is a thief.

Agree. It's weird how it was sold as a great and redemptive story.when they were stealing and sponging throughout the entire book.

They clearly were never going to pay back the 100k to the relative.

When I read the book I just couldn't believe that anyone could be so stupid to lose everything in that way. It was totally unbelievable. I also thought she came across as really unlikeable. I live in Cornwall and literally nowhere she describes is recognisable to me. Obviously it's all seen through her lens, but I'd say her lens is pretty skewed!

If she'd told the truth the book coukd have been about her own redemption.

On another note, I didn't belive they would be fit enough to walk eating just noodles and Cadbury Fudge.

Haha yeah, MLM shills and Jack Monroe taught us not to believe anything !

Is it time for publishers of memoirs to do, I don’t know, some fact-checking?

She's clearly a con artist and a common thief - an embezzler who didn't turn up to the police station when told to report there after being arrested, who ran from justice and lied and lied and lied. Sickening. As for her husband's 'terminal' diagnosis, that's obviously just another lie. I'm so glad I never bought the book and I certainly won't be watching the film.

Its easier to get a story like this published as nonfiction

This is all so interesting. I have a gut feeling about another piece of work that I suspect is largely created by AI. I am going to sit it out though and see if anyone else notices in the next few years.

The publishers market it as a true story though - this is their blurb, which the author would have approved:

"The true story of a couple who lost everything and embarked on a transformative journey walking the South West Coast Path in England."

Exactly. It’s so strange anyone could read the book and not draw the same conclusion. That’s the literary world, I suppose.

I'm not surprised; I agree he is infuriating, a truly eccentric character whose stubborn refusal to use any sort of radar/tracking device when sailing across an immense ocean in order to be more "authentic" is what leads to their ordeal in the first place. Totally nuts.

Maralyn is lovely however. It's an amazing tale.

Authors earn money from library loans (up to a maximum of £6,600 per annum), which is annoying in this case!

come on, give us a clue...

I really hope this story gains traction, and doesn't just disappear.

I believe this article is very likely accurate. Real shame, because I did enjoy the book when I read it - but the circumstances leading to their downfall never added up for me, and neither did his miraculous recovery. Now it all makes sense.

The debts, and the circumstances of them losing their home, don't really surprise me. People who go on big adventures like the Winns often have colourful and chaotic pasts that they're trying to outpace - a bit like the Aunt in 'Travels with my Aunt'.

Lying about having an illness is really shit if true, though.