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.

Say that all you like. Lots of us posted on here after reading the book to say the story didn't ring true. I posted under a different name admittedly but you don't have to Google far on Mumsnet to find people saying that the story quite simply didn't add up.

That bit I do believe

No one else would have spun such a web of falsehoods and half truths

I think she probably wrote it herself. With help from a good editor at Penguin.
it is usually celebs who employ ghost writers and they usually get a credit.

Agree with @DworkinWasRight brings into question whether they had actually gone the walk, given as @DworkinWasRight observes, a well written book for a first-time writer. I had always thought it was case of ‘write what you know’ and style naturally follows. It’s a great add to the debate about memoir. Should it always be accepted as fiction, if only because the publisher doesn’t see the need to fact check.

I listened to her on Ferne cotton happy place and instantly dislike her- I don’t think they people are saying ‘ooh I knew it’ gleefully- they’re more vindicated that they thought they were being unkind by being sceptical or not connecting with the author.

😂

I’ve never read the book because I can’t think of anything I’d be less interested in reading about than a pair of old hippies finding redemption by going on a long walk.

bloody grifters. I hope this revelation pulls the plug on the book tours and celebrity appearances. And if there’s actual evidence of fraud, surely there should be a prosecution?

In the film Raynor Winn (Gillian Anderson) talks about a letter that didn’t arrive in time to present at court. I wonder what that was all about? If it existed in real life and would it have kept them on the farm?

I thought that story sounded very strange, given that the author was obviously not stupid. but I put it down to me being a tough old cow who would never have got herself into that situation anyway, and I thought I should be kind...

The endless ads for the film and the sequel have become intensely annoying of late, as I didn't want to engage with either.

That’s based on the fiction that they lost the farm due to investing in Tim’s old friend’s business, though. I imagine it’s entirely imaginary, or transposed in Sally Walker’s head from what must have actually happened when the London relative’s business collapsed and he sold on their loan — maybe she believed she had a document that ‘proved’ that their loan was nothing to do with the collapsed business, therefore the debt collectors couldn’t have bought it?

(Though surely she can’t have thought they were ever going to be able to pay back that loan and it’s huge whack of interest, anyway?)

Angela Harding (the artist who did the covers for all the books) seems to have deleted all reference to the books on Insta and her website. I know she posted about them as they came up in my feed.

It’s amazing the truth is only coming out now! I won’t be going to see the film now. What a despicable pair of criminals.

Well, now you can read it as a book about a pair of middle-aged grifters going on the run with a tent from a mess of thefts and debt?😀

I did actually find myself thinking, would it be quite a good way of going on the run? No fixed abode, only very minimal bank card transactions once a month, on foot, no records of staying in b and bs, hostels or campsites, always on a coastal path, presumably with fairly minimal CCTV?

I don’t think Where the Crawdads Sing was presented as anything other than fiction though. Do you mean she was shady about her own life?

I follow Angela on Insta and like her work. I thought of her when the news came out.

I'm really disappointed. Mind you, a friend of mine who is a retired consultant did think that it was unheard of for "Moth" to recover in the way he did with the disease he had (unless that too is fabricated). I think that set alarm bells ringing with her and put her off the whole thing. Mind you she is equally stunned, having just read it in the Observer today.

Oh how interesting. Probably was as shocked as most of the rest of us.

Haven't read any of the books but went to see the film with modest expectations of nice Cornwall and Devon scenery. The first bit about them losing their house was infuriatingly vague, enough to be suspicious in itself. But I also thought the treatment of their children was pretty cavalier: they didn't seem to think the kids would be upset at losing their home, and there was a brief reference on the lines of 'it's fine because Boy is moving in with his girlfriend and Girl is going off on a university placement abroad anyway'. I would have been much more concerned about my kids' wellbeing given the circumstances! Might explain why there's been no comment from them.

I didn't realise, but she has a fourth book due to come out in October. It's available to preorder from Amazon. Will be interesting to see how that pans out!

She should still be proud of her work — I think her beautiful cover designs were a key part of the books’ appeal. (But I understand why she might not want it to be something she’s associated with. Just as I imagine Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs are also saying ‘Oh, fuck’ after they’ve been promoting the film with the Walkers.)

It appears the whole thing was "fake". Why didn't she just write it as a novel? In my opinion she is a good writer and the South West Coastal Path is stunning.

They tried to argue the opposite, that it was a business loan.

This is from the second article in The Observer.

The Walkers tried to present a last-minute piece of evidence to the court. They claimed James’s loan came from his company that was insolvent, and so their debt should be called in by the former company. But James provided a witness statement saying this wasn’t true. He told the court he had lent the Walkers the money from his private account and urged the court to award possession of the Walkers’ house to the men that now owned the debt.

Her work is wonderful and she still has items for sale with the artwork on them.

She just seems to have removed all reference to these books.

And yes, I imagine the two actors will be feeling pretty annoyed at being duped as well.

That is explained here https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

They tried to argue that the loan was made by the company that was insolvent so James couldn't sell the debt as the debt was to the company not the individual making the debt to the people who bought it invalid 'But James provided a witness statement saying this wasn’t true. He told the court he had lent the Walkers the money from his private account.