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.

Omg me too! I have friends who absolutely loved it and I really wanted to like it too to join in with the enthusiasm.

But I just couldn’t get into it. I found what I read to be rather suspect, strangely skewed and unbelievable.

I thought it was just me being an old cynic.

How cruel,assuming Moth isn't a miracle case, to create that false hope for other people with CBD and other similar conditions, that there might be a simple activity out there that could so significantly affect the progress of the disease.
I knew someone with something similar - I googled Moth a while back expecting that he would have died and was amazed he still seemed well.

I read the book and found it enjoyable enough. Beyond noticing that there was little detail around the financials surrounding their homelessness, nothing seemed amiss. I’m surprised that so many posters seem unsurprised that they both turned out to be sketchy.

The book ( I read it 2 years ago) didn’t make enough impact on me to wonder about what happened to Moth, re his illness. But had I thought of it, I’d have assumed that he had died, or was very Ill.

I first heard of them via a BBC article publicising the film and the story and people behind it. Something seemed off. The article linked by OP didn't surprise me.

They should be arrested.

1. stealing £60k from employer
2. selling tickets to people to raffle off their home, when they knew it had massive debts against it.

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

This. How can people get away with embezzlement, regularly not paying for services and fraud? I wonder if this sort of thing would happen if we had ID cards. Penguin are at fault too for selling the public something as "true" and non-fiction when they haven't checked the facts at all.

I hope they repay their victims although their characters don't seem to work like that... £64k is a lot of money for a business in a small town like Pwllheli, the area is not exactly thriving economically. They sound utterly callous and heartless.

Disgusting to fake a serious, terminal condition and give others false hope "you can get better if you try hard enough". What revolting individuals.

Huge kudos to the observer for putting all this together. We rarely see proper journalism these days, and this is what it looks like.

"Sally and Tim started their own company, Gangani Publishing. It only ever published one novel, How Not to Dal dy Dir (Stand Firm), written by an unknown writer called Izzy Wyn -Thomas."

Mmm. Wyn, a bit like Winn, and Thomas, a bit like Timothy then?

A Welsh Apple Cider Vinegar. I bet they met some poor person with that condition somewhere along the way and got the idea for it.

You really wonder how it gets this far without the publishers or film producers doing some due diligence and drilling down what happened to the house, asking for a doctor’s letter etc

If this is true, I am surprised at Jason Isaac’s involvement. He’s always come across as an ethical and thoughtful man, and I don’t see how he could have researched the part without having some concerns.

Its dangerous when people lie & say they have cured illnesses with walking etc

Now that this is out how long until it becomes widely known and reported on? It's very damaging to all those who so enthusiastically platformed this pair (radio 4) if they don't offer similarly extensive coverage to update us on these revelations

This is what especially enrages me. My husband was diagnosed with a very similar 'Parkinson's Plus' condition last year. The progress of the disease is relentless and terrifying. He's gone from long walks in Dartmoor to a wheelchair in less than six months.

This doesn’t surprise me at all. I remember discussing it with my father at the time as we’d both read it and thought something seemed very off with the backstory at the beginning.
I googled her to find out more (and him) out of curiosity to see what the actual story was with losing the house, etc. There def would have been information out there about them, even just basic legal stuff. There was nothing at all about it. It didn’t occur to me that they’d have changed their names, I just thought it couldn’t have been the truth.
I also couldn’t fathom how Moth was able to do the subsequent Iceland trip if he had such a degenerative disease.

Would the next logical step be for Penguin and the film company to sue them?

If they do nothing, it wouldn't be a good look for Penguin's credibility.

Plus could that then lead to criminal charges for the people the conned?

Any legal eagels got a view on how this could play out?

Could be absolutely disastrous for this couple. Still there's always Lands End to John O'Groats left to do, so silver linings and all that. Best get their boots on.

I wonder how many people with debilitating illnesses have been inspired by Tim Walker and, despite being very ill, have tried walking and ended up in considerably more pain, and been disappointed and sad that it didn't work.

I read the book but it was a real struggle. I spent most of it thinking what a pair of fuckwits.

I was going to watch the movie as I like those 2 actors in it. but I won't be able to sit through it now I know it is all a lie.

This reminds me of the Belle Gibson case, the publishers had not asked for evidence of her cancer www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/13/behind-belle-gibsons-cancer-con-everything-about-this-story-is-extreme

Interesting that her Instagram page does not allow comments

I googled them a while ago because I wondered why he was called Moth. In an interview Sally Walker says his real name is Ray and that he was called Moth because he was an eco activist in the 80s and 90s.

This didn't feel right, so I tried to find out more about them from the GRO, Ancestry and so on, and came up with absolutely no info that would match any marriage or births.

I did conclude then that they'd made up exotic names for themselves and that they were probably called Smith or some other mundane name.

I follow Gillian Anderson in instagram. She was in Germany a few days ago at The Sakt Path premiere, posing on the red carpet with Sally. 😬

I wonder what Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs think now. Both of them were completely duped by the couple.

Doesn’t really surprise me but then I’m cynical.

This is another 'health' charlatan - and embarrassed that he was living in Wales at the time - but he claimed he could cure people by inserting items into their body and would then sniff/lick it and tell them how much their cancer had retreated/got worse. Some of these sufferers stopped their proper cancer treatment after he'd spun his tale with them.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16877006

Even though CBD is a rare illness, surely a quick google would reveal it isn't going to improve by going for a walk?

And that at some point Moth would have to be dead, not going on more walks and looking the picture of health?

Gutted!

Someone bought me the book and it is not my usual “thing” but I ended up loving it and re- reading it several times and recommending it to others 🤨

But even I was a bit confused about why/how they lost their home and why they didn’t accept housing support, just get jobs, get PIP for Moth etc etc

But I put it down to the fact that they were hippy free spirit types who of course couldn’t be expected to live in a council flat doing minimum wage jobs when they were used to running their own business and living on a farm surrounded by fields……So put my skepticism to one side and enjoyed the tale.

What a pair of grifters! And you would think the publisher would have done some basic due diligence/fact checking!!

Am interested in what about the ray/moth eco activist spiel didnt sound right to you