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 thought that too. Surely that would go against the medical advice for someone with that kind of condition.

Not read the thread yet- but lots of us have said over the years the story didn't add up. I just am still surprised at the level of criminality, I assumed it would be incompetence not theft !

I also hated the implication that those of us with neurological conditions could magically get better if we just went on a long walk

I have just requested a refund from Amazon customer services because they are mis-selling and mis-advertising The Salt Path.

What happens if readers want refunds, do Amazon go to the publishers?

Agreed.

"if true". The information all came from court documents

I heard her speak at an eco festival in 2019. She was very meek and unassuming and quite shy. Quuetly spoken.Seemed genuine. That she really had gone for a long walk...some of that rings true.

totalky different persona now. She has certainly blossomed into a confident speaker. Almost arrogant. Like someone who has won.

The observer pieces are unsurprising in a way...there was clearly more to the losing the house story.

The film is fairy tale with the poetry moments etc. But nice scenery and Gillian Anderson.

I really enjoyed the first book but at the time I wondered why there was no statement from the “other side”, as it were. It seemed unlikely that they would have kept quiet as the book increased in popularity.

I used to regularly encounter ‘Moth’ in an old job pre-Covid; didn’t know who he was at the time but I don’t recall any signs of difficulty walking etc. He wasn’t the friendliest person but I just put that down to shyness or something.

I didn’t like the second book because it felt like she’d had to churn it out to meet a publishing deadline. Much of the Iceland part made me think they were clueless idiots. I might still read the third one.

I just dont understand how no one in the publishing or film world did their due diligence
It was obvious to me the book was riddled with things that didn't add up, and if I have a flaw it's that I am too trusting and always try and see the best in people!

Don't know, I've suggested that they do go back to Penguin. I would imagine they would be concerned about mis-selling, but who knows, it is Amazon after all. Maybe if enough readers complain it might prompt action.

I found it hard going to read and didn't like "Ray". I couldn't put my finger on it, I thought it was because I found her writing too poetic and dramatic in that Facebook way, like those attention seeking posts

I never imagined it wasn't true but I was surprised when I looked up Moth for an update on his health and he was still alive and relatively well.

The article appears very well researched.

I suspect it opens a can of worms now and more pp will come forward with their version of events in the book.

(Trigger warning)

Goodness- how ridiculous.
I need a good positive read.
I give up on so many books because the negative aspects.
The last one was great until it turned out the heroine had an eating disorder- very sad , but I read for light entertainment.

There is an interesting recent review on Amazon where someone is basically saying it's made up.

There's another book due out in October. Be interesting to see if that goes ahead. Really interesting how our instincts tell us when something doesn't ring true, isn't it?

I knew it! I can always spot a grifter!

The Observer will have fact-checked all the details and had their lawyers all over it. This isn't gutter journalism .

Same here! My book club adored her but i didn't... To me she came across as entitled and a bit mad tbh.

I bet she will have used Mumsnet to research the condition!

Link?

I read this book a few years ago, I found it rather depressing, and have been in two minds as to whether to see the film. Friends have said its really good, but possibly they thought the book was good

@MumOnBus I don't know how to link to an app. It starts as below

"There isn't a universe where this is non-fiction. Based on a true story in the sense that at some point two people who went on a jaunt existed physically in reality, and that's about it. I'm sure the author's miserable attitude to everyone and everything is very real, too."

Precisely

Yes, ditto. I have fibromylagia and rheumatoid arthritis. It was diagnosed a few weeks back after 5 years of begging the GP for help and finally getting a referral and crying all the way through it with the consultant because I was so exhausted and sick. One of my friends who also saw the film suggested helpfully to me that I should try and exercise through the pain and exhaustion to 'see if it helps'. Just yesterday DH and I were talking about it in specific reference to the book. I was feeling maybe I was not trying hard enough to get better.

I have to process how I feel about that. I feel disappointed and lied to tbh and I can't imagine what people with the condition Tim Walker was supposed to have feel about it.

@GoBetween I’m so sorry. I have friends and family who have had terminal conditions and spent tens of thousands of pounds on snake oil attempts at a cure (completely understandably). My friend who had cancer said that if anyone told her (no matter how ridiculous or expensive it was) that there was a chance of it being cured she would have done what they said.

People who try and sell this shit are the worst.

I hope you and your husband are OK.

One man they owe money to didn't make the connection even when the film came out where they had lived.