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

Sorry if I have touched a nerve about PIP but the PP said "Do you realise how few people qualify for PIP?" I didn't know the answer so Googled for the official answer. I was staggered that the answer was 3.7 million or over 5% of the total UK population. Sorry if you don't like the answer but please don't shoot the messenger.

All of the media coverage of The Salt Path Affair has just regurgitated the excellent comprehensive articles in the Observer. I don't think that I have seen anything new. I'm astonished that no journalist has been doorstepping the couple as it looks like they are easy to find.

I'd guess because giving refunds isn't conducive to healthy profits which independent book stores rely on.

Don't blame anyone for wanting a refund though. I bought Landlines for my mum last year (she was a fan) and I wouldn't mind one either!

The publisher of the bestselling memoir The Salt Path has said it undertook “all the necessary pre-publication due diligence” with the author after key aspects of her story were disputed.
Penguin, which published Raynor Winn’s prize-winning memoir in 2018, said it signed a warranty contract with the author at the time concerning “factual accuracy”.

Salt Path publisher defends ‘due diligence’ as story is disputed

https://www.thetimes.com/article/a007fb1d-df3f-45e7-981c-e408e6ecc77e?shareToken=648caad2ac78731533e9a8b22e41c130

Why would her parents get married 20 years before she was born? I think the wedding dress comment was just something that stuck in Ros' mind as Sally was ranting and raving.

James Herriot's books were never sold as completely true. They were described as a description of what it is like working as a vet in Yorkshire. He never said it was a completely true account of his life. The timescales are different , the place names are fictionalised, he uses completely different names and the events are are a mix of things that happens.
The Salt Path was described as completely true

...expecting sympathy from the nasty woman who wanted her stolen money back.

Well, yes, I get that, and have pre-ordered myself, but I was surprised at the idea that there would be significant numbers of pre-orders for RV's fourth book, especially as the general impression one has of her post-TSP work is that it's somewhat pallid attempts to regain whatever it was that made TSP so readable for its fans. (I only read part of the second book and thought it had all the hallmarks of someone trying to reduplicate the success of their debut.)

But I can entirely see that, even in relatively small numbers, it might make a difference to small regional bookshops who struggle to stay afloat at the best of times.

I noticed the Times article says he did run the marathon

Mr Winn completed the London Marathon in support of PSPA in 2023, and a fundraising walk to the capital to coincide with the race last year in support of the charity.

The summary from Goodreads:

One signature, two very different outcomes…

“The wind’s gusting to force eight, threatening a storm ten. Roaring in from the Irish Sea with unstoppable fury. Each pulse lifting in strength as it clears the headland, crushing down on her with dragon’s breath, anadl y ddraig. Driving her from this patch of land, reminding her that it should never have been theirs.”

Ellias and Baxter arrive in North Wales with a van full of children and dreams for their future. They aren’t expecting the investment that future is based on, to go so painfully wrong.

Jeremy scans the property markets of the world in a cocaine fuelled race to the next big deal, but will his past and the pending economic tsunami catch up with him?

This darkly humorous novel uses the deftest touch to draw a thread through the lives of Welsh farmers, City accountants, Indian hoteliers and Eisteddfod mums. But in the end there is only one question – what’s in the bag?

The style of the paragraph from the book is interesting (I haven’t read anything by 'Raynor Winn', though, so can’t say if it compares directly). The premise seems a bit eyebrow-raising too - dreams of a Welsh cottage, an investment gone wrong?

"Penguin’s full statement, provided to The Bookseller, read: “Penguin (Michael Joseph [a division of Penguin Books]) published The Salt Path in 2018 and, like many readers, we were moved and inspired by Raynor’s story and its message of hope.

Penguin undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence, including a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy, and a legal read, as is standard with most works of non-fiction. Prior to the Observer inquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book’s content.”

I've C&Ped from the Independent in cases the link shared by @Orangesandlemons77 (thanks) from the Times goes down.

Do you know how far away Fowey looks to someone based in London?

The thing about being on a farm, too, is that if you stick a guard dog out the front, and/or padlock a gate at the road access, it's pretty hard to doorstep someone who doesn't want to be doorstepped.

Presumably in their shoes, you'd either lie low at home, if it was somewhere you could hole up, or get the hell out to somewhere big and anonymous before the story broke.

The Bookseller magazine's Facebook post has attracted over a thousand comments.

They usually get between 0-2!!!

https://www.facebook.com/TheBooksellerMagazine/posts/pfbid024eNJGPYGVhoH5E1zaGVLphvV15WGY2nyUT9JTYx6XrC5oZ5JqcSiLSGTi3WfZVehl

Jeremy scans the property markets of the world ...but will his past and the pending economic tsunami catch up with him?

1. I read that as scams!
2. Yes, Timothy, your past did catch up with you!

Maybe the film ignited a surge of interest in RWs forthcoming book.

And then The Observer article snuffed it out.

I think The Rest is Entertainment brought up an interesting question.

What name did the Walkers use when signing the contract with Penguin, and what name was their bank account in for payment?

I'm wondering how they could have opened bank accounts in their real names without the bank being alerted to their credit history. And if they did it in their assumed names, then how?

Ellias and Baxter arrive in North Wales with a van full of children and dreams for their future. They aren’t expecting the investment that future is based on, to go so painfully wrong.
Jeremy scans the property markets of the world in a cocaine fuelled race to the next big deal, but will his past and the pending economic tsunami catch up with him?

It's interesting that this book (pub 2012) sounds like a precursor to TSP (pub 2016). Ellias and Baxter = Raynor and Moth. Jeremy = 'Cooper'. The cover tagline reads: A True Welsh Thriller, where the only dead body is a sheep'.

I mean, you've got the origin story of TSP there, right down to the sheep. Which suggests the idea may have been germinating for a while.

It says on the website that you can arrange a visit to the farm, Mumsnet coach trip? https://www.hayefarmcider.co.uk

My question about benefits isn't about Moth potentially scamming the system, it's that given that he had a terminal, degenerative condition and both he and his wife were out of work, homeless and destitute, why on earth wasn't he claiming them?

Because it's all a load of total bollocks!!!

The total number of people living with some degree of disability in the UK is also shocking - 24% of all adults according to gov.uk. So compared to that the 5% claiming PIP is quite reasonable.

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9602/

Mn lynch mob, more like!

I just looked it up. I think I've been in the wonderfully-named St Veep church years ago.

How to source it? ‘Unavailable’ at Amazon.

Try and track down the people on the smallholding forum who bought it as part of the fraudulent draw?

The Penguin statement is hardly a ringing endorsement of the veracity of the Walkers, it is?! I'm not sure the "legal read" would have achieved much anyway if the real circumstances for their financial situation were carefully concealed.