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?

Here it is in the Independent, which has gone a bit more hardline that soe of the others.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-salt-path-raynor-winn-b2783833.html

Apropos of absolutely nothing they live near me. I could literally walk to their house. I thought there would be press outside waiting to doorstep them but it seems not.

I thought I was the only person who didn't like the book and thought it was full of holes but apparently not.

Yes indeed - I guess it explains why in the book she is very cagey about why they don’t have family who could help. I imagine from the nephew’s statement on LinkedIn that there must be some substantial backstory there about family loans, deception, etc.

I agree. Surely someone from their 'old life' who knew them as Sally and Tim Walker has recognised their faces in the several years they've been all over the media? They don't have to have read the book. Anyone from their apparently debt-ridden past could have flicked through a newspaper or seen The One Show and thought 'Blimey, that's Sally Walker! She used to live near us and did a flit owing money. Why's she calling herself Raynor Winn??'

Interesting that "Raynor" has described the Observer article as "highly misleading". "Misleading" is a softer word than "untrue". She says she and her husband are taking legal advice before they comment further. Does she really expect anyone to believe that all those people interviewed by the Observer are lying? Why would they all have a vendetta against this couple, and what are the odds of them all colluding?

This is true. Somewhere in the story she even mentions her daughter, writing notes in a charity shop book, bless her, not realising she couldn’t have been emailing times news desk etc

But what do you do then?

As Ros Hemmings said, she didn't know who to contact. Contact a paper, but who at the paper?

And you run a massive risk of trying to publicise it and getting a massive backlash yourself.

Maybe she is playing for time, waiting to see what else comes out. There are probably people who were reluctant to speak up before who will now-such as the relatives on Linked-in.

The whole thing is gob-smacking

I know someone who has published a book about her childhood that sounds like a work of fiction (based on my knowledge of her childhood- we were in the same friendship group). She was a pathological liar at school and caused all sorts of upset, telling boys she'd aborted their baby then saying it was a lie was a particularly awful memory). But I don't have anything concrete to flag. And I am not sure the press would be interested anyway as her book is not a big seller

Also, if you aren't into books etc then it would be easy for this to have passed you by. Not least given they changed their names and may well have changed their appearance. DH wasn't aware of the story till I told him about it

Exactly. And she's been grieving for her husband and trying to live her life.

I find it far more shocking that noone at the publisher or film company did any digging around the gaping holes and inconsistencies in the story. Are they really all that naive?

Of all the people RW claims to have met on all their walks, it seems nobody has confirmed that they encountered them at any point. There are no photos (apart from a few of RW's own) and no video. Seriously doubt the walks happened at all. And as for their supposedly unchangingly passionate, evergreen love, that seems like another bit of manipulation to add to the sense of tragedy - as well as to explain the apparent selfishness of her dragging him off for endurance walks when he's so ill.

If "Polly" is real I'm sure she'll have something to say about how she was portrayed. But again, I suspect she was an invention.

This is part of the interesting bit of the story The Observer have glossed over, I feel in their eagerness to 'gotcha!'

Also, this loan - and the 'hotshot London lawyer' who convinced the good-hearted and wronged estate agent boss to settle out of court.

Raynor had an asset (the house), so they would have got their payday had the court found in their favour. Sniffs to me of Raynor the bookkeeper knowing something about the creative accountancy of her boss (tax scheme/personal bills through the books etc) and the caution from hotshot lawyer to him was more, 'you go to court, it might backfire on you'.

Then, the harebrained scheme to be bailed out by the distant relative (again, why is Moth not asking, is his relative? He is v passive in the background. But obvs knew everything.)

The Welsh villagers owed money The Observer cough up as further 'evidence' is pretty weak. A cursory glance at 'mean celebs' threads on here will tell you 'that bloke from Emmerdale looked at me funny in the Tesco queue and now I hate him'..... any encounter with a well-known person is going to become apocryphal.

All need further explanation by the journalist.
Sure, investigate big business, Post Office, big pharma companies poisoning water supplies, cash for questions, dodgy reform MPs...but the 'gotcha' culture, the crowing and the inevitable TikTok sleuths who will monetize this sorry saga about people who have no real power and boo hoo I paid £9.99 for the book, I feel robbed...and lo, the story is just eating itself.

Of course there was always more to their story. Of course it was as holey as Moth's jumper, but, in the words of Lucy Honeychurch in A Room with a View, 'what did you all think?'

Seriously doubt the walks happened at all.

I've read various bits and pieces from people who've walked the coastal path, or are familiar with it, who've said her descriptions sometimes don't match up with reality.

I expect they walked bits of it, and she made up the rest.

Insinuating the man she swindled was up to no good is not very nice

he signed the nda because he needed his money back- he was struggling to pay wages

and the whole thing about why would he lend her the 100k - because she’s an accomplished liar and fraudster who potentially gave false information?

the mess is one of her own making and trying to blame the people who became embroiled is not really on

I really disliked how Polly was portrayed in the film! She came across as ungenerous and superior, like she was doing them a huge favour to stay in an old freezing outhouse on her land whilst they did it up. It was grim to watch RW and MW sleep in the outhouse and to see MW do the plastering whilst he was cold and in pain.

I’d thought Polly was meant to be Moth’s sister, or something along those lines, but apparently she’s Raynor’s friend (as people mention here).

None of the coverage so far - whether more or less favourable - has any more information than the original Observer piece. Which is kind of interesting in itself, as I would have thought there would have been a lot of doorstepping and cold calling going on today.

As for why it has only just come out... It can be very hard to get journalists interested in a story where either public interest might be low, or the person is popular and fits the zeitgeist.

It's very likely that someone has tried before, and unknowingly contacted someone who wrote a gushing review for one of SW/RW's books, or somebody who had given up on investigative journalism for other gigs, or who didn't fancy trekking across to Wales on the off-chance that there might be a bit of a story. Besides, a lot of family members will just want to hide in a corner, because once it comes out everyone will know that they're related to these utter grifters, and the family-wide fallout will be massive.

Are they still living on the cider farm? I thought it was odd that the cider business doesn't seem to have mentioned her or the Salt Path in their publicity, I wondered if they'd moved on.

Agents, publishers and their PR departments form a close-knit and impenetrably loyal (at least to the outsider) team around an author. Their impressive machinery produces relentlessly positive messaging to champion them - in RW's case in all the mainstream media, and even involving very well-known and respected actors on prime time TV.

I can quite see how someone in a quiet little town in Wales would find that completely intimidating and alienating. It's a bit like reporting any crime that has upset, hurt or violated you; you run the risk of exposing yourself to further anguish by reporting it, opening it all up again, and possibly not being believed, or being personally discredited. Far easier to know what you know and try to manage your emotions privately. Unless of course someone comes asking questions....

@redcord speculation there about her former employer, based on nothing. How about the owner of this small business just wanted their £64K back?

You should knock on their door for a Mumsnet exclusive - I'm sure we can rub the magic lantern and get Justine from her lair to stage manage that and I'm only half joking !

@redcord you are possibly verging on libel there ( or would be if he wasn't dead!).

They certainly were a few months ago. I guess they may have moved. They have never, in any shape or form, done the 'local celeb' thing. They have very much kept themselves to themselves.

None of the film was filmed anywhere near here. The very end of the book is set between Talland Bay and Polperro and I thought it odd that that of all the scenes in the film it wasn't filmed where it really happened.

What a bizarre taken on all of this.

His wife may decide it is libellous though. It defames her character too. I'd get your nasty speculation removed @redcord