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

@HumbleWarrior I agree fictionalised under a pseudonym and being extremely publicity shy would have served them better. Maybe they wouldn't have made as much money without the "our brave struggle" and charity angles and obviously not appearance fees, but it would surely have been safer.

I mean, according to them people wouldn't even recognise Simon Armitage (who was incredibly well known by poet standards even before becoming Laureate) if they fell over him on a coastal path.

From the DM comments:

I knew Tim back in the early 2000s when he worked in Plas yn Rhiw, not far from Aberdaron on the Llyn Peninsula, as head gardener.

Plas yn Rhiw is a National Trust property, a 25 minute drive from Pwllheli.

Do you have a link? Or a page and thread no?

People can sign contracts in any way they like and money can be paid to a limited company, as as long as it was a legitimate company it wouldn't ring any bells. Writing under a different name is very common.

The publisher has a responsibility not to libel anyone, so has to make sure that anyone who can be easily identified can't sue, not that every aspect of the book is true. They have to trust the author on that otherwise they'd have to have a full time team of investigative journalists.

🤣🤣🤣

Someone was asking earlier on this thread whether any people who'd met them on the SWCP had come forward to say they'd encountered them -- a couple of comments on The Bookseller's FB post purported to be from people who'd met them on the path.

I worked in a housing department for the last 15 years of my working life ( not as a direct housing officer but in the building part) .. Believe me , housing officers are certainly not Jobsworths' but are working against the odds and regularly get a huge amount of abuse. It's pretty soul destroying daily trying to help people into housing when there is a massive shortage of affordable homes - especially in a place like Cornwall - and many people in priority need either through unaffordability ( often because rented homes in popular tourist area are advertised as holiday lets instead) , homeless with children because of circumstance beyond their control or because they are unable to work for whatever reason. The waiting lists for social housing are huge in most area and the Walkers would just not have been a priority. I have often seen housing officers cry because of the abuse they get.

Its another example of 'poor me, we have been unfairly treated ' whining from Sally , If Tim had been really in urgent need the health authority would have found residential care for him ..

Also from the DM comments, I've deleted the names of his parents, but checked them out with public records and they are correct.

When they left in disgrace they had a chateaux in France and Tim’s parents rented a large property in Sarn Meillteyrn near the chapel . His father XXX Walker and wife XXX had plenty of room for them to stay. Not homeless. They were on the run!!
...
They lived here. They stole here, many people in the area are still owed money by them ! We don't need to search its local fact. His father always use to say how he was going to live with them in France and re do the chateaux with them . Until they left.
...
Everyone in Pen Llyn area of North Wales who know them as Sally and Tim Walker know that they are thief’s and frauds. They have concocted a pack of lies about their lives and have ruined lives in their wake. They are truly evil and nothing they say should be believed.

Wow!

Agree. I worked in an adjacent area and have huge admiration for housing officers

Not RTFF, but in case it hasn't already been linked (and apologies if it has), an interesting discussion between Marina Hyde and Richard Osman on The Rest Is Entertainment podcast. Osman is signed to Penguin Random House, and discusses some of the contractual/indemnity/editorial due diligence aspects of the relationship between author and publisher. MN gets a mention (not particularly complimentary).

It won't let me link for some reason but if you search YT for 'Escape to The Country 12 x 3 Wales' I believe it;s the first property shown (with the barn they used for holiday lets)

Thanks @PrimalScreaming.

I have an unread copy of Landlines on my bookcase. DH bought it for me when it came out. Lovely hardback copy. Well, I say lovely - beautiful artwork from Angela Harding.

I'll still read it, soon but with a sceptical view of everything she says, given recent events. Then its off to the charity shop. I have two beautiful books by Angela Harding with lots of her stunning artwork in, so don't need to keep it for that reason.

I wonder if Penguin will pursue this?

"Penguin undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence, including a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy..."

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/the-salt-path-publisher-raynor-winn-controversy-b2785349.html

a chateaux (sic)

I think we need to remember from The Observer that the house in France is uninhabitable and at the time they were going over - possibly with their children and/or Moth/Tim's parents - they were staying on the land in caravans with the likely intention of renovating it. In the interests of fairness, that part of the DM comment makes it sound grander than it probably was.

This is SW at core. Turning stealing £9k into a poor me situation, while not admitting to the other £55k. Beyond entitled. Total financial narcissism. It suggests she will think she has a right to all her book and film 'earnings' no matter what.

There will be a lot of reference to 'the good they've done for charity' with no admittance of the reputational damage which now follows (since some are saying the charities should have done more fact checking too), or the appearance fees they extracted. I say they as it's important to remember TW/Moth is complicit.

The person making the comment had never seen it and was probably going by how it had been described to them by the Walkers.

It's also going to be in a considerably worse condition now than it was 17 years ago.

5% of the population is not a high percentage. 95% of the population don't claim it. And you didn't "touch a nerve". You jumped in the thread introducing the idea that he probably claimed PIP fraudulently. PIP is not the topic of discussion here. There is not evidence he claimed PIP. And at best it is tone deaf to be accusing someone of fraudulently claiming PIP after the last week in which disabled people who claim PIP have been vilified and lied about - often on this site. I suspect you are simply being goady. Having a go at people who claim PIP seems to be sport around here.

Wow. The Observer article is a great piece of investigative journalism.

How on earth did they not think the truth would
out, as it did when they stole £64k?

Perhaps this fits the psychological profile because most people don't behave as they do.

How they kept it a secret so long is interesting given how many people recognised them.

Wonder if Gillian Anderson will make a statement, was reading an interview of her and Winn together.

The more notable point I thought was that their parents were around and rented a place near to the French property and there would have been place for 'Raynor' and 'Moth' to stay there but they had to vanish instead because they owed a lot of people money both in England and France

No, his parents rented a place in a village in Wales. It's a 25 minute drive from Pllwheli according to Google Earth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarn_Meyllteyrn

It's not that staggering when you consider around 1 in 4 people in the UK have a disability. "16.1 million people in the UK had a disability in the 2022/23 financial year. This represents 24% of the total population."

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

Ah that makes sense!! Still, definitely not without options!

Even more shocking, isn't it? It makes the petty thievery along the way now look like normal behaviour for them. They seem to have just carried on as they always had - new place, new names, same shit.