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.

Deliberate hit piece? Might as well Say that about any piece of well researched journalism.
As for a third or half the story - is suspect the other two thirds or half will emerge in due course

Please say which one?

Plus Penguin and the film company should sue them for the pack of lies they’ve presented as true.

Companies are responsible for doing their own due diligence - if a journalist could find all this out, much of which is in the public domain, then so can companies. Penguin are hardly short of the bob or two to hire a PI.

Let the small people who have been cheated and defrauded sue them for what the are owed (with interest).

One does wonder whether the hike was ever undertaken at all.

omg, I see the most engrossing podcast being produced to describe the 'true story'

Fraud is the only type of 'true crime' I enjoy hearing about. In fact, the scandal aspect of this info coming out is hugely enjoyable.

thanks hugely to OP for starting the thread.

This article will have been months in the writing and researching. The writer almost certainly had an agreement with the Observer for it before it was sold. And she is a journalist with a good track record. She knows that because of the popularity of the book and film and the extraordinary nature of the revelations, this article will be widely read. Why on earth would she risk her reputation and career by publishing anything that isn't evidenced? Why on earth would the lawyers, who would certainly check anything like this for accuracy in order to protect the parent company from defamation suits, have allowed it to be published if there wasn't sufficient evidence to support it?

I note that you haven't spelled out which bits of the article you're sceptical about. Please offer your theory and evidence here. It's not enough to say 'I'm sceptical'. Back up your feelings with facts, please.

Agree. The journalist isn't going to risk a defamation claim.

It’s interesting to look at the 1 star Amazon reviews that were posted before the Observer piece was published. They frequently point out the gigantic holes in a story that purports to be true and often express bafflement at how many readers have fallen for it. Well done the 1 star cynics!

I don’t know about Sally but I heard on a podcast the other day that Moth was short for Timothy

Id really like to see more journalism of this nature

I think Sally Walker may be entering the conversation with some of these comments dismissing the journalism involved in the article.

What nonsense.
I mean yes I think there is more to come - but I suspect it will be more stories of how Sally and Tim have taken advantage of or stolen from others. I mean in the book itself they admit to stealing from shops etc.

If anyone's going to start down the 'this is third-rate journalism and a set-up' route, go and google Chloe Hadjimatheou. She's absolutely fantastic. You will not get far with that take on her work.

And whoever was imagining that this could have broken in the Mail, cop on! The Mail is a gossip rag.

I know exactly what you mean. But then I am a cynical twat and sometimes , like Gillian Anderson' s old sparring partner Fox Mulder , I want to believe. Living in County Cork I have developed an aversion to old vaguely hippy blow ins. I know this is illogical and most of them are decent old skins. There's just the odd fraud with a nose ring telling you how to be a druid or whatever.
Explorers are equally annoying imo. In fact my book club thinks I'm a bit of a wet blanket because I'm not in awe of some survivalist who can live on insects and gravel. Actually I feel a book coming on....

I think the book reveals exactly who they are. I found them unattractive characters then, who had a rather flexible moral code. But there is a chance for them to redeem themselves now.

This doesn't surprise me, nothing rang quite true about the other book but I enjoyed the descriptions of the coast path. Tried the second book hated it and couldn't really place why I disliked the author.

Tedsshed

Pretty huge attack there! I just voiced an opinion, I didn’t judge anyone, shoot down people, force my opinion on others or say ‘Daily Fail rulz 😉’ Hope you have a good Sunday (have to go start the fun job of getting everything ready for Monday!)

I am also cynical about free spirits / ex hippies / alternative living devotees and in my experience it often comes with an expectation / over reliance on others’ generosity, state support or other public resources.

Weird thing is that I'm sure when I read it for my book group (and was almost kicked out for being a hard-hearted bitch for not believing it) I wrote a 1* Amazon review but I can't see it there. It would have been in 2018 or 2019.

These books gave a lot of people comfort and hope. It reminds me of the Lance Armstrong book that people with cancer would read and be inspired from.

If these new findings are true then it's a sorry state of affairs all round.

The messages in these books are far greater than what the authors did.

I smell the beginnings of an attempt at discreditation.🤔

Absolutely the three articles in The Observer are carefully worded. Those parts that have been proved are straight out referred to in terms of this happened and that happened. The names. The house in France. The loan and subsequent court case. The reason for the loan.

The embezzlement is referred to, and words like alleged are used because it didn't go to court, and she therefore wasn't charged.

Other parts, like questioning Tim Walker's diagnosis, are referred to in terms of 'could', because the journalist has done as much as she can to ascertain from experts whether or not Tim Walker would still be alive, let alone walking of his own volition, if he'd had CBD for so long.

All of this, alongside testimony from her employer's wife, the wife of the man who loaned them £100,000, other people such as the garage mechanic who says she owes him money, and the new owner of the farmhouse who started receiving debt letters and official letters from France, provides a strong basis for it all being true.

Long list of authors who’ve done similar though. AJ Finn, Norma Khouri, Wanda Koolmatrie, Helen Demidenko etc

Asked Amazon if they will be issuing refunds, they said no because Penguin have not recalled it.

[Someone said they could be on a path to redemption now]

What, and write another book about it? 😂

Really?

This book didn't give me "comfort and hope" as someone with a neurological condition. It made me feel angry and frustrated at the myth being peddled that you can "walk yourself better".
It fed into a way of viewing illness that sees it as a sign of weakness, because if we were strong enough or healthy enough then even if we were terminally ill we would be able to walk hundreds of miles against doctors orders.

It's a nasty and harmful lie. It makes those of us who are ill feel like failures and it creates a culture where people assume you are only ill because you aren't doing the right exercise/eating the right food.

The number of times people have tried to tell me yoga will cure me.

It's a hugely toxic lie to spread

A good piece of journalism that found proper sources and didn't get all judgemental or dramatic. Even recognised that some of the issues are common to people recalling events in their lives.