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.

I enjoyed the book for its descriptions of the coast path but remember not fully understanding / believing how they got into that situation. I don’t think about things that deeply and just enjoyed the book for taking me on the coast path journey. I thought the film was very underwhelming, in terms of the story but the scenery was beautiful of course. I thought it ended so abruptly and with much of the story still to be told but instead just some text on the screen explaining what happened next. Very odd.

I’d personally like to see the film remade /edited to include these revelations as it would be much more interesting and the money made could go some way to paying back and compensate all those who’ve been wronged.

Very possible. Without the illness the driver for starting the walk is the loss of the house which is not something Sally would want a focus on as then people ask why did it happen. Having an illness shifts the reader from ‘what fools / charlatans’ to ‘if he can overcome that, I can battle my problems’. I don’t understand why she chose something terminal though when so many other illnesses are available.

i guess when she wrote it she didn’t think that nearly a decade later there would be a film made and an investigative journalist. I wonder if the PSP Association had doubts when he was able to keep fundraising with big walks and showed no symptoms. It seems they never asked any questions to authenticate the story either.

But a lot of people have said all along that they thought there was probably a lot more to the house repossession and how it was depicted it came about. Including myself, my family members and posters here. No-one could’ve known for certain but it was obvious that a hefty dose of artistic license was applied!

So shocking if any illness all invention. No words.

I found it very hard to understand how the book was published in the first place.
It's not a particularly 'new' idea or that compelling. I'm in the journalism/publishing world and it always struck me as a rather weak story.
I wonder if she found an agent to approach a publisher or already had contacts?

It's quite unusual for an unknown writer to get a publisher for a memoir, unless it really is 'out of this world'.

The essence of the story is just 'Lost all we had, [through no fault of our own haha] - decided to do a long walk like an adult 'gap year trip' and my H is ill as well.'

That was me - the CFS & Fibromyalgia. I'm still fuming about a phone call I had earlier this week from a nurse working with a charity linked to our local GP Surgery. She told me she knew I had CFS & Fibromyalgia and was ringing to offer me a session of mindfulness and learning how to write a gratitude journal. FFS. I said no.

Interesting that the publishers refunded a test group of readers in a similarly misleading case.

I for one would not have purchased this knowing these elements were fictional.

It was also inspiring on a medical basis which is outrageous.

😂True, but they weren't going out and sitting beside Thatch and Voldemort in interviews, saying how badly they'd been treated! I'd doubt they're too pleased but none of it is their fault.

@Ammophilaexactly, I have questioned repeatedly why I can’t just walk or exercise myself out of cfs/long covid resulting in relapses and personal frustration as if this damn diagnosis isn’t frustrating enough.

Yes absolutely! I'm a lawyer and I've seen new evidence in a civil case submitted during closing submissions. The case had to be adjourned while the judge considered if the evidence was admissible and to give the other party a chance to consider and respond but it was allowed in even though it made a considerable difference to the evidential picture. Quite unusual but it does occasionally happen. My point is that nothing is final until judgment is handed down. I

Also Raynor fudging the lack of detail by saying she wasn't allowed to discuss the court case. Also bullshit - court hearings are open to the public and a matter of public record except in very rare circumstances. Anyone who knows the parties names and the Court can request copies of the pleadings for a modest fee.

You're right, it is very unusual for a complete novice to get a book published. Having said that, it can't have been that weak a story because it was a massive bestseller. So someone at Penguin had good instincts for what would appeal to the public, even if they didn't have very good instincts for whether something was true.

I'd love to know how they got it accepted - did she pitch it to an agent first or straight to a publisher? She apparently published an article about their walk in the Big Issue first, so perhaps the reception to that gave some indication as to whether it was going to be popular.

I'd like to see the publisher and the Mr and Mrs Walker making some chunky donations to homelessness charities and the PSP charity

Oh and maybe they donate towards making the countryside more accessible for those of us who actually do have serious neurological conditions - better paths, more mobility vehicles for hire (Trampers and the like).

I would love to walk the coastal path instead of just reading about it, but sadly over excising would make me dangerously ill and no amount of will power will change that fact

Quite but as she was claiming her name was Sally Walker and the farm location was not given no one googling could find anything out or make a connection to the real story.

I wonder how much Penguin knew? If she is still legally Sally Walker all her royalty payments would need to be made in that name. And any agent or manager would have a contract with Sally. So they are the only ones who could fact check anything prior to publication and the real name of the author was probably tightly controlled so few people knew it wasn’t her real name. .

i imagine that eventually one of the wives of the man she defrauded of £64k or the wife of the man who loaned her the £100k realised that Raynor was actually Sally and was so outraged that they contacted the journalist.

That’s exactly how I felt about it.

Virtually all traditionally-published authors have agents, though. Almost no reputable publishers, except small indies, will accept unsolicited submissions — agents act as a gate keeper. Raynor Winn is represented by Graham Maw Christie, an agency that specialises in non-fiction. I don’t know whether she just sent them a few chapters and a pitch, which is the normal route, or whether they approached her after seeing her work in the Big Issue (rare, but does sometimes happen. Sally Rooney’s agent approached her after seeing an essay on debating she wrote.)

The editor will just have thought ‘Will this sell?’ And, in fairness, was right. It did.

I'll look at the book and see if she acknowledges her agent.

It's highly unusual.

I'd have passed it by as not interesting enough, especially as her writing isn't that good either.

It’s not that unusual! That’s how I got started. No connections, no creative writing degrees. I just wrote a novel and sent off a few chapters and a pitch letter to agents I thought might be interested. Had three offers of representation, went with one. She sold my novel (admittedly after quite a few nos.)

And that agent, and her publisher, were quite right to think it would sell. Some serious thinking needed now, obviously, and the legal department at the publisher will be coming up with a position, but their instincts weren’t wrong.

I thought he would have died by now so was expecting a "twist" that It was all a dream mistake or misdiagnosis.

Wow, the Observer article is damning. I live in NW Wales and have just got back from a hobby day not far from Pwllheli. Unsurprisingly the article was the talk of the lunch break! None of the participants knew the Walkers, but someone knows the garage guy and was hoping v much that he gets his £800 back. I read the book ages ago and didn't like her at all, and also thought the legal case and a lot of other stuff didn't ring true. So I'm v pleased to see the Obs has done all the due diligence.

For people saying 'why did no one come forward before', she's v vague in the book about details. I had no idea she'd ever been based up here, for example. Added to that the fact that most people here are 1st language Welsh speakers and she'd changed her name, some book by a random English woman probably wouldn't have been on the radar of the garage guy. And possibly Mrs Hemmings felt because of the NDA she couldn't make any public comment prior to the journalist asking. I agree with the comment upthread that the main players are all now dead, so she probably did think she'd put enough distance from events and it was safe.

Her agency is Graham Maw Christie.

https://www.grahammawchristie.com/talent-library/raynor-winn

I was being flippant, but you’re right, of course. Though I quite like the idea of Jason Isaacs sitting next to a pallid, noiseless evil wizard on press days.

The book says (page where is gives the publisher's name and date of publication etc) that although some names have been changed to protect people's identities (ie people they met on the walk) the author has said that all other events are true.

There is a disclaimer to the effect that nothing 'medical' constitutes advice and neither publisher nor author take any responsibility for anyone using the book as medical advice.

Goodness! I am relieved (in a way) to find what a phoney the author (and book) really are. I found her very irritating and self-centred and it didn't grip me. I kept thinking I would have hated to run into her if I had been on that walk. I now wonder how much of the walk, if any, they actually did. I recommend people who feel cheated by this revelation cleanse their minds by reading an excellent and entertaining account of the same walk by Mark Wallington, who really did do it some years ago with his flatmate's dog (a London dog) - "500-mile Walkies".

The journalist got in touch with the wife of the man who was defrauded. It says so in the article
I imagine as he was asked to sign an NDA the wife felt she wasn't allowed to speak out.

Her Wikipedia entry has been undergoing changes, with updates about today's articles. However there's an edit comment about not wanting to take sides, and the details of her real name have been deleted, and the artcle appears at the bottom of her entry.