Thread 2. To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[AWanderingFool]

Thread Two for The Salt Path and Raynor Winn/Sally Walker/Sally Winn discussions.

Thread One is here: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Sorry @AlertCat , I wasn't clear. Alpaca is right, this is my guess at how she might play this. I think it might work!

A few more will see it now!

The BBC online has a good concise summary of what has occurred.
They have contacted her agent at GMC and Penguin for comment.

That still doesn't explain it. Itinerant homeless would have found it almost impossible to "sign on". It still is very hard for the itinerant homeless to sign on today. The "homeless" who sign on are generally not itinerant, and often have some form of - at the very least - "correspondence address" if not a hostel or other temporary accommodation in order to sign on. Most of the ones I knew (recently, but I don't think things have got harder) had to sign on every week too, to prove they were still around. It's not impossible to claim benefits when "walking" but it isn't at all easy, and regardless of his health she would have been required to show that she was actively seeking work to be eligible for anything.

Who would admire a capacity to steal and lie and then act the victim? I think there are probably a some elements in the story that are true but that a great deal of it is fantasy and lies. The author comes across as quite superior and judgmental at times. Even that little lockdown story is smug.

@borogovia Your quote at around 12 today- where did you copy it from, please?

I think the £48 predates the loss of the farm/house/barn and was some kind of income top up. She says Moth couldn't work because he was ill, and it implies she wasn't working either, if their only income was from their barn. She says that they needed to stay in the area for that benefit, but couldn't, so they never told the DWP they were no longer living at that address, just arranged for their post to be forwarded to Moth's brother's house. So the DWP or whoever still think they're living at the farm.

She also is careful to point out that they refunded everyone who had a booking at the farm.

She made it up, thinking that it's possibly how they will try and twist their way out of blame

Screenshot of the nephew's quote for people who don't like clicking links!!

Oh, so you made up that 'quote' from her'.

Maybe you can retract it because the way you've posted it makes it look like a fact.

Yes, they stayed on the DWP's books as resident at the farm and had their post forwarded to Moth's brother. She says this.

BBC News - The Salt Path author defends herself against claims she misled readers
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2z0707mlgo

I don't know why people are tying themselves in knots over what kind of benefit the £48 was. I think we can safely assume it was a total fabrication

It's the obvious approach. I imagine it's how anyone advising them would suggest playing it.

In the end though it's a love story and whatever else you can't take that away from them - as thick or thieves or not.

You had to look for work to get JSA

And no - PIP / DLA is not based on diagnosis but on impacts. If you can wild camp a long distance footpath you do not get PIP (which I think probably didn't exist at that time - it would have been DLA. I get PIP and struggle to walk to the end of my (short) drive! As soemoen who did do long distance walking, and has done that path, you would not be able to walk that far. I was very fit and healthy, I have trekked in the Himalayas and the Andes. It is not an easy walk for anyone.

I’ve just done a bit of Googling and saw here - https://www.bigissue.com/culture/film/the-salt-path-raynor-winn-gillian-anderson-jason-isaacs-interview/ - that RW initially contacted the Big Issue in 2017 to ask if she could write an article about being homeless.

I’m glad she was able to shine a light on homelessness. It just feels like it’s really bad taste that her and Moth’s actions made them homeless and she then contacts the Big Issue to write about it (and presumably get paid for it). I think, as others have said, that this led to her book deal.

Homelessness and homeless people are so stigmatised already that this is just going to make the situation even worse, I think. It just makes me so angry that she reached out to the Big Issue herself! Sorry if other posters have already mentioned this.

A lot doesn’t make sense because it is most likely fabricated

Course it's not.
It's a fantasy.

A love story between two criminals who've defrauded people, stolen, and lied their way to wealth.

Ah, if that is true that is fraud - but in this case it is never out of time and the DWP can always go after it!!!! There are cases of people who owed overpayments (no fraud involved) decades ago having it deducted from their statutary pensions.

Not knots - as I said above, benefit fraud is never out of time. The government can always get you 😀

It just feels like it’s really bad taste that her and Moth’s actions made them homeless

But they weren't homeless. They had a property in France which they could have gone to if really desperate.

Well, I suppose they couldn't because they had the French authorities pursuing them! And I guess that's why they've not tried to sell it, because it would have flagged up their name changes.

Maybe love is and their fantasy is real becasue they believe it so “We walked, we talked, and we loved. And that was enough.” .....

No it doesn’t