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 suppose there is something that Sally could refute - the embezzlement. She would have refuted it if she hadn’t done it.

I'm sure I heard her say in an interview that a farmer was letting her and Moth live in a property on his farm in exchange for Moth doing a bit of work. However, I am wondering if 'Tim and Sally Walker' actually own businesses and property and the friendly farmer is a fiction. If they are known to be financially secure then they lose their publishing USP and, I guess, it's easier to hide assets from creditors if you have two different identities.

It’s interesting this issue about publishers checking facts. I’ve just reviewed an academic article for a journal and I wrote back that I had some concerns about the originality of some of the sections. I received an email to say they were going ahead and publishing the article anyway. I thought what was the point in sending this to be reviewed?I wonder if the pressure to make money and meet demand in this case meant that they didn’t undertake the necessary checks and balances.

Yeah, as has been said, it's not a great look to effectively say 'ah, we all knew they were grifters but we were fine with keeping quiet and taking you plebs' money anyway'.

And this is the true game of journalism (not as others have suggested whether the pieces stand up or not, which of course they will as well researched pieces of investigative journalism).

I suspect Chloe and her fellow researchers have another two or three pieces up their sleeve. I felt some of the pieces today didn’t delve far enough, making me think there are articles to come. The lottery affair certainly.

Now the race is on to make sure her research for other pieces is ahead of the game against mainstream outlets playing catch up.

Oh yes, I think you are right (read Salt Path a while ago) - well, it is a whole lot better than her effort and very amusing.

Her next book, apparently, is about a walk she does on her own.

One thing I wonder about is this. If you're a grifter, you're generally looking for easy ways to make money - eg embezzling your employer, selling knock-off iPhones etc. Writing a book takes time and is absolutely not a guaranteed way of bringing in income. The vast majority of books bring in a pittance for their authors. Unlike other people, I thought The Salt Path was very well-written, and it looks as if the publisher did too. But you could never have predicted it would sell 2m copies and be made into a film with Gillian Anderson. Much more likely that it would sell a few thousand, then drop off the bestseller list having made a couple of thousand quid. Why would anyone put all that effort into writing a book if they were looking for a fast buck?

I meant she doesn't refute the fact that she embezzled money because it's true and set her book on a whole premise that never happened, the reason why they lost their money and the fact they weren't homeless because they still owned a house.

But surely they’re now financially secure, because they’ll have made quite a bit of money from her books and the film? I think it was always accepted they’re in a much more secure financial position now than when she wrote the Salt Path.

Yes it is. And oddly enough that bit sounded more convincing to me, as so many of us have encountered that sort of 'computer says no' rule where you're ill/poor but not ill/poor enough to qualify for help.

Thanks everyone for posting all your thoughts, feelings, insights, links, detective work and a few laughs too. I've come back after some sleep, some DC and animal wrestling and some cooking to find you've all been rather busy since 2am when the first story broke. I've just managed to crozzle the cooking, trying to catch up with the thread. It seems that there are more questions than answers the more the hive mind discovers.

'Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive ‘

Omg I read it this morning and discussed it with my mum when I went to hers for lunch! The article sounds entirely plausible and legit. I'm so disappointed. I LOVED the book when it came out, just watched the film and loved that too. I must say I didn't care for her follow up books...found them boring and hard to get through...I'm fact didn't finish either one.
They both seem like extreme truth benders and now I'm doubting the validity of EVERYTHING she's written.

@RoyalCorgi Why would anyone put all that effort into writing a book if they were looking for a fast buck?

Good question.
According to the film she wrote it as a birthday gift for Moth because his condition meant he was forgetting what they'd done and where they'd been. But if Moth doesn't have that condition as many people have suggested then was he ever even actually forgetful?
God knows, but don't think about it too much because it's enough to make your head spin.

Agreed, I got carried away and shouldn't have shared that. Sorry.

Wow. Thanks for this. Amazing how cunning/clever people can be for their own gain.

What makes you think she is envious?
. And I would be very interested to know what type of terminal condition you can have and still be well 18 years later. I don't see how it can be CBT which is a degenerative brain disease that impacts movement, coordination, and cognitive functions.

You can bet the Observer's legal team have been through their article very very carefully. They've had as long to do it as they needed, of course, whereas the Fail will have been up since about 23.00 yesterday, tearing their hair out over it.

I can believe he would have had trouble getting any disability benefits once they started walking, for a number of reasons. With the diagnosis he apparently had before and the start of its effects, backed up by medical evidence, not so much.

Can you imagine it. I've got a terminal diagnosis for a degenerative disease.

But I just can't stop walking along the long distance paths of Britain!

I'm one of those who's feeling sad, angry and let down today. I loved Raynor/Sally's books and was inspired by them. I'd love these revelations to be untrue however no amount of mental gymnastics would seem to refute the claims made by the highly respected journalist.

However I took am struggling with this aspect.

Sounds like something out of Monty Python!

I might go for a walk and write a book about it. I live in Cornwall. Maybe I'll fill it with lies and call it The Mud Path. There's enough of the stuff.

Just remembered the last bit of the film when Wise Crone Character says "You've been salted".

This is an expression I've never heard iny life and I've known quite a few "salted" type people 🤢🤢🤢

I've just seen she is due to be on tour from Friday with Saltlines. I wonder how that will pan out?!!!

https://www.gigspanner.com/live#saltlines

I read the book ages ago, and something didn't feel right. The whole losing the house stuff to start with. I also Google diseases a lot, so probably did that and was sceptical of how he was recovering rather than deteriorating. Whatever I didn't like put me off reading the other books. I think I just didn't like her style of writing.

I did actually try and find out their real names recently because I'd read something and thought I'd see if there was anything online about them. Moth being Tim was obvious to me as I have a friend called Tim I sometimes jokingly call Moth or Mothy.

I did want to see the film, mainly for the location, as the SW Coast Path is gorgeous.

The Daily Mail are probably fuming that they didn’t expose this first and can’t run it as one of their standard ‘benefits cheat’ stories…