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?

I wonder if anyone from the papers has gone to where they lived to ask about them?

I've seen a comment from someone who apparently lived there at the time about how Tim and Sally Walker left owing lots of people money, and that Tim's parents lived locally (so they were never homeless). At one point they were doing up the house in France with a view to living there with Tim's parents.

The commenter names everyone and where exactly they lived.

You don’t believe an article that has been fact checked before publishing but you believe in Sally and Tim’s love being ‘enough’ for them because they said so?

Why wasn’t their love enough when she was stealing money from a man described as trusting and kind?

To all the 'so what, noone died' brigade - regardless of the money and victims they fleeced, it is a big deal for the reader.

I read The Salt Path during lockdown at an incredibly difficult time in my life when I was going through a hideous ordeal. I found the book comforting and inspiring at the time (maybe because I was trapped indoors).

To find out she is not the person she said she was feels like a betrayal. Not a big one, obviously, but a betrayal nonetheless.

When we read memoir we feel a connection to the author, and put our trust in them. I write memoir too and it is big responsibility to tell the truth but also to be responsible for the people who read it.

She has pissed all over that trust. It may feel like nothing to all those people who never liked/believed the book anyway, but that doesn't mean it's not important.

That does make sense. Puts me off buying books but I see the logic.

But the film company have no such excuse. If they have a £10m production budget they could have spent a few minutes checking basic facts

Sally worked as a bookeeper for a local business and embezzled the accounts for her own benefit. That's what I find shocking. Can some posters not see that?

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?’

Perhaps you could write her next book @Wellwater. Sounds like you’ve got the victimhood, “nothing is ever our responsibility” mentality, disdain for others and sense of superiority down to a tee

Or the Fake Heiress podcast series by Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000c9mb - excellent listen.

I think she is doing the reality TV rounds now.

Yes - I really enjoyed the book but not half as much as I’m enjoying them being exposed as a pair of charlatans.

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?’

I am very happy to not be an embezzler, liar, grifter and whatever these 2 are, thanks.

I haven't seen the film or read the book, but I wonder if the film has a disclaimer like these sort of films often do: that it is based on real events, bur some parts have been fictionalised etc.?

But the film company have no such excuse. If they have a £10m production budget they could have spent a few minutes checking basic facts

This is true. The line about basic facts has got me thinking, I was a bit surprised at the end of the BBC news report on this that they also mentioned that Moth's condition has been called into doubt by some doctors.
I'm trying to work out if they would include that unless they've seen/heard something that the rest of us haven't. Particularly as in the previous breath the reporter spoke of RW taking legal advice.

I'm back in the unproven till I see receipts m'lud with a soucon of curmudgeon and wild swimming aginst the salt tide. That and I'm feeling mildy ashamed at the schadenfreude nerve that it is getting stimulated - at best they are morally and ethically very dubious but not evil.

Those swallows and swifts flying around here now? Which way do you think they flew to get here?

So let me get this straight - her new book (doubt it will see the light of day now) was about him becoming more seriously ill, and as a result her running off to do some walking elsewhere in the country?!

I mean - WTF? "Our love is so pure and fresh, even after all these years, much fresher than other people's love, but I'm off mate cos you're ill" 🤔

I do understand wanting to see proof.

But I do think it’s evil to steal from and watch a man getting increasingly perplexed about why he’s losing money every month for years, to the point he couldn’t pay his staff.

Why isn’t that evil?

What is your opinion about someone who steals 64K from their employer over a period of years?

No I wouldn't say "evil" because there is a high bar for that, but it goes a bit beyond "morally and ethically dubious" into "thief and criminal" territory, doesn't it?

The Observer's lawyers wouldn't have allowed them to publish without receipts.

It will all come out over the next few weeks. You'll get plenty of receipts.

It was a tax credit, to supplement their income from the holiday let. HMRC would have continued paying it until tax return time.

Then I will be at the back cheering on the tumbrils !

The Salt Path: Memoirs that stir our emotions and seek o...

I'll ask again, do you think someone stealing £64K from their employers is "morally and ethically dubious " or a criminal act?

I am genuinely interested to know.

Embezzlement is evil on a local business and the receipts are there.

Didn't the BBC put money into the film?

I'm guessing a lot of the information for the Observer article came from the legal documents/court case. Matters of public record - they won't have needed receipts.

Ditto legal records for the house in France which was conveniently forgotten in the 'homeless' narrative.

This is an opinion piece in i News. I can't view it, unfortunately, but it's someone who interviewed Sally Walker who now feels duped.

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/i-interviewed-the-salt-path-author-raynor-winn-now-i-feel-duped-3792271