Thread 3: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

Thread One ^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?^

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

Edited as pp edited their post.

Yep - but I think it shows that whatever comes out there will be people who won’t want to believe it

You would think people would learn from stuff like the Belle Gibson scandal..

I think everyone wants to think illness is the person's fault, because they think they won't get it.
I love yoga, but if another 'friend' recommends it to me as a cure for my condition I will put them in a yoga pose they can never get out of (well I will in my head at least, in reality no amount of will power will magically make my nerves start talking to my muscles!)

😂😂

Yes there's often " magical thinking " put out there for various reasons . One of them , I believe , is the reluctance to accept that sometimes life deals a shitty hand to ordinary people for no discernable reason at all which means our lives are actually out of our control to seme extent. Two of my beloved children practice this and I believe it's because they're scared of losing me . But their belief that if only I did this or that , I'd be cured and lead a normal life again gets wearing at times .

To have to cope with these illogical beliefs and nonsense from strangers , including that neurologist upthread and this wretched author , is just exhausting.

No, but the vast majority of people who read TSP won’t have been outdoor enthusiasts either, in all likelihood. I mean, there are absolutely loads of books of the type that Marina Hyde dubbed ‘boomer goes for a walk’, and most will have been consumed by people who would no more dream of wild camping than they would of training as a toreador.

I think he was being sniffy. He loves doing his man of the people thing (see recent debate with MH on whether Citizen Kane is better than Interior Design Masters — he says indubitably), but only with certain things.

😀

I'm in our village book club and had The Salt Path inflicted on me, I hated it and let rip about it, nothing about it rang true to me, some agreed but other people loved it. We had a very spirited and fun debate and all remained friends at the end. The best months at book club are when we have one that divides the room like that. First thing I did when I saw the article was to post it on our group chat, we've all been having a laugh this week whichever side of the fence we were on. Some other books clubs described on here sound mental 😂

Whole thing is bonkers. I read it years ago when it was first popular and thought it was ridiculous then. Why do people blindly believe everything they hear/read? Inspiring? No. “It seemed the most obvious thing to do, would be to go for a long walk’. Fuck off.

I think what’s more interesting is how society acts around these events such as this and Captain Tom and that sort of thing. Everybody whipped into a hype frenzy and getting all inspired…Then the inevitable furore when their idols are knocked off their pedestals…. It’s fascinating. I would say that the inability of a lot of people to think critically about anything has a lot to do with it.

I started doing yoga to help ease the aches and pains from my fibromyalgia & CFS and it does, to a certain extent, but it's never going to cure anything (how could it?) It's the only thing that I seem to be able to do consistently without it triggering fatigue. I'm not very good at yoga and often wobble out of poses, landing with an "oof" onto the mat. At least it gives me something to laugh at occasionally.

Oh I agree, i imagine the SWCP is pretty dangerous in place with a sight condition like his, it was the number of times he reiterated it that tickled me

A nice, measured Instagram.post?

Either it was posted by Sally Walker or one of her representatives or the person is naive beyond reason.

She embezzled £64,000 from her employer. She then borrowed money to escape being charged. Her and Tim left leaving behind them a load of debt.

Five county court judgements, debt collectors, and the French authorities were after them.

But they've done good?

Sounds exactly the kind of thing she'd come up with to try and wriggle out of it.

On the magical thinking stuff, I have a bowel condition which is caused by previous surgery (adhesions) it's scar tissue on the inside, anyway a friend told me her friend 'thought she had that (before surgery) but she thought positive and when they did the surgery nothing was there!

There isn't any cure for it and it has caused me life threatening bowel obstructions. Good job I don't just imagine it's not there and ignore medical advice then.

Raynor Winn's 'the true story about our journey' comment reminds me of the Princess of Wimbledon herself, Hannah Ingram-Moore with her statement;

'When I look back, at the last five years, we know that we owned the truth and what I can’t do is sit here and persuade everyone to believe our reality.'

Both using 'truth' to mean exactly the opposite.

Ha, it was me who found it! I am an Mnetter with - hold the front page- an Instagram account. I know, hard to believe 🤪.

I thought it was a more measured response to the 'grifter' 'charlatan' 'he's not even ill' brigade, so posted it here, but it's really interesting to see the reaction.

I agree, it sounds like the kind of defence RW might approach, but it seems from the mood music on here it may be a dead end for her.

What was the discussion, @MClair ?

It's important to remember that Sally/Raynor didn't just slip a few tenners into her pocket from petty cash. She used her position of trust as a bookkeeper to create false invoices, over a period of years, to steal £64,000. It was a cold and calculated crime, taking money from a small local business.

It's so nasty and minimising isn't it.

Positive thinking should surely be around finding acceptance and finding ways to cope or adapt, not this toxic idea people can will themselves better

Agree, and presumably over a long period of time, so not just one desperate action.

Also, only paid back after she was found out, she didn't intend to

I wonder what her reasoning was behind stealing that, maybe that Moth was ill so she needed it more? Who knows.

I kind of agree on the health - we don’t know the true story and I feel u comfortable speculating about someone’s health

the problem with the post was the minimising and glossing over of sallys criminality which then led to the loss of the farm. That’s either naive or calculated

I wonder whether it was more from the journalistic perspective of knowing he was relying on reports from others about what was in the book?

I mean, it would have made more sense for him to have read some key chapters before doing a TV programme about it really!)

I guess it's inevitable in a godless society. We create our own idols and are furious when we discover they are flawed, because it indicates that we ourselves are flawed, and the extent of our own self deception.

I'm looking forward to how this plays out in the press - it's summer, there won't be many political stories coming out, hopefully it will run for a while and then we'll get the Netflix documentary in 2026.

It's all way more interesting than the book itself.

As for what becomes of the book in the long term, who knows? Pps have pointed out there's a long history of fake/self-aggrandizing bestseller memoires - eg most Hollywood chronicles, Papillon, San Michele - but most aren't written as a way of covering up straight out theft, and have an element of entertaining the reader in and of themselves, rather than being just a long, dishonest personal whinge.

I think some people are very shrewd in capturing the zeitgeist. The whole Captain Tom thing coincided with a period of upheaval and uncertainty where the "cosier" elements of folk memory around WW2 seemed comforting to some, perhaps especially those who hadn't experienced the reality, which was practically everyone by 2020.

It seems there will always be a market for false Messiahs and perhaps why caution if not cynicism is not just desirable but essential.