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?

Her statement is intresting that it doesn't deny a lot just talks more about the walk and the journey...

It’s being talked about in Front Row on Radio 4 right now.

I was on thread one - this is wild 😁 I still don’t understand why there’s no due diligence when someone says they’ve done something irl and writes a book about it and nothing is checked at all. If there’s millions to be made from it, the money must be there to establish some truths. It’s ridiculous if some of the geographical descriptions are wrong and it got published as a factual account, never mind anything else.

I also have no sympathy for these individuals. Many people have shit lives through no fault of their own and wouldn’t get a second glance, never mind a four book and a film deal to talk about their, on the whole, self-inflicted troubles.

That the family are wading in with their real names on LinkedIn means this isn’t going to go away or it’s a stretch of the facts on a slow news day.

What are they saying?

I think one of those channel 5 Celebrity House Swap shows where Hannah goes to stay on the free farm and Ray stays at Moore Towers, spa unfortunately not included.

So in front row they are discussing it from the angle of the publisher - spoke to Alexandra Pringle who had been at Bloomsbury when she had to deal with a plagiarism case (from well known books surprisingly - I guess they don’t do due diligence)

straight to legal department and then follow her gut about how much she trusted the author. She talks about publishing a memoir as fiction because the novelist’s fans wouldn’t go to the memoir section (odd!)

sounds like sally should have gone for auto-fiction and then she wouldn’t have had these problems.

does the sale of goods act apply? She says no legal obligation to refund

all publicity is good publicity? She says no because it’s already sold well and it will probably harm it

'She loves him so much, but now that he's dying, she feels trapped and has decided to bugger off without him to seek solace in the landscape while he suffers at home.' Yep.

I grew up in a small place. A lot of people don’t like putting their business out there in public.

And actually I don’t disagree with @sualipa — I think the Spectator article said something like ‘If there’s anything we like more than a tale of triumph over adversity, it’s discovering that the bestselling tale of triumph over adversity is a pack of lies’. The atmosphere of public glee feels a bit witch hunt-ish.

Is it something to do with readers having felt rebuked for having a roof over their head while two people starved and trudged themselves into serenity, and were very dismissive of other people walking the path differently, or anyone richer than them, or couples not still passionately in love? And now suddenly there’s a reason to say, ‘Well, we might not be walking the coastal path while living on fresh air and love, but at least we’re not embezzlers?’

Totally agree. The papers quoting from the book when she found about his illness and she said ‘you can’t be sick, I still love you’, as if that’s so romantic. Whereas it just sounds selfish.

Not much. It was a piece on what a publisher does when stuff like this happens. Interview with a Bloomsbury publisher who had a book accused of plagiarism.

I thought that the report on the BBC news at 6pm was quite light. It didn't mention their real names or the French property, for example. Instead it came across at times like an ad for the film. As the BBC has put money into the film perhaps that is all to be expected and they are not reporting impartially.

Strictly Come Dancing?!

I'm sorry, I'm playing catchup on this thread! Have been out this afternoon, and there's a lot to read.

No one is grabbing pitchforks @Katypp

Instead all posts eon target about the article from the Observer which broke yesterday.

To some of came as a shock and to others like myself, it simply confirmed suspicions.

Oh Jesus, that would be so depressing if it actually came true. Although you’d be quids in and loving life 😂 maybe we should all put some money on that haha.

Not at all! It was my mistake - and it is a fast-moving thread…!

Grift-ly Come Dancing? Sorry….

I was on thread one - this is wild 😁 I still don’t understand why there’s no due diligence when someone says they’ve done something irl and writes a book about it and nothing is checked at all.

Yes it gives me hope for when my magnum opus about my marriage to Brad Pitt and bigamous other with Tom Cruise is finally published, with a concurrent account of my trip to the International Space Station (sorry Brad n Tom, not really 😂)

There is no alternative truth. There is only lies.

PS and ISS.

They could invite Belle Gibson and Jack Monroe too

Most books don't sell that many copies. A figure frequently quoted is that the average traditionally published book can expect to sell 3,000 copies in its lifetime. A publisher can never be sure that a new author is going to be a big seller. The initial print run of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone was just 500 copies, and 300 of those were for distribution to libraries. Yes, occasionally a new writer will produce a book that will make millions, but most of them don't. So why are you going to waste money checking their allegedly true story? Unless this happens to be the one that is a big hit, it will sink without trace, and no-one will ever know or care whether it was true. And if it does become a big hit, you really don't want to research it and find out that you've been publishing a lie.

Does anyone know whether the publicity on the film has been affected in the wake of these revelations? Saw that Moth and Raynor appeared on the red carpet with thw leads from the film. I'm sure that sort of thing will be scaled back a bit now 🤔

But no, the Observer is no longer the Sunday paper of the Guardian. They have no real connection now, apart from the Scott Trust being on the board in order to calm some journalists down.

£24 week each to live on is simply not true. I'd like this particular 'fact' to be corroborated. Benefit payments are shockingly low, but this is asylum seekers payments.

Plus to get Universal Credit you can't just take yourselves off on a jolly to walk a difficult terrain and not be available for work. Both in their 50s.

😂😂 and maybe Anna Delvey? Anyone remember her? Would actually really recommend Inventing Anna, on Netflix, about her grifting.

Somehow managed to quote myself in another post, but this is one more thing:

No, the Observer is no longer the Sunday paper of the Guardian. They have no real connection now, apart from the Scott Trust being on the Observer board in order to calm some journalists down.