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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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38
AveriltheAvidReader · 08/07/2025 07:50

savory · 08/07/2025 07:25

It is a sad indictment of British Journalism that the recent pinnacle of investigative journalism is an expose of a paperback beloved by boomer book clubs: The Salt Path. They should have a pop at the Bible next !

Sorry? You're defending the author?

If not what's your point actually?

SomethingFun · 08/07/2025 07:52

They’ve sold 2 million books based on this shite, it is in the public interest. I do think if real life memoir is a lucrative genre then there should be some fact checking. Or the authors have to sign a legal document saying it’s true and if it’s found to be false they have to pay back their royalties or be prosecuted.

Otherwise it’s fiction and some similarities to people alive or dead is purely coincidental. And I don’t think 2 million copies of a made up, fairly unpleasant middle aged couple running from financial ruin because of fraud would have sold at all, or at least not to the same audience for the same purpose.

Ammophila · 08/07/2025 07:52

HonoriaBulstrode · 08/07/2025 00:37

Well this thread sent me off to YouTube to look up Gigspanner and I found a beautiful rendition of The Water is Wide. Just the thing to listen to before bedtime.

I've just listened too. Beautiful. I hope they manage to salvage their tour, with dignity. They don't deserve to be dragged down by this fiasco.

faffadoodledo · 08/07/2025 08:03

I hope Gigspanner come out of this fine. They like many others were duped. The band features the fabulous John Spiers of Bellowhead fame too - top musician and performer. Undoubtedly the others are too - I’m just a huge Bellowhead fan!

PandoraSocks · 08/07/2025 08:04

"Boomer" book clubs 🙄

Aspanielstolemysanity · 08/07/2025 08:12

The comments on the observer you tube video from people who had relatives with CBD about how this book made both them and their relatives feel awful, like somehow it was their fault they couldn't walk themselves better, are devastating to read.

ZiggyPlaysGuitarrr · 08/07/2025 08:13

I wonder if we'll hear from any of the other people featured in the book - if they even existed?
Polly, the friend whose outbuilding they lived in an renovated over winter. The rich wine merchant they spent a night with. The surfers, or the woodland homeless community. Dave and Julie, the friends they made along the way and did further walks with in the other books.

AveriltheAvidReader · 08/07/2025 08:18

SomethingFun · 08/07/2025 07:52

They’ve sold 2 million books based on this shite, it is in the public interest. I do think if real life memoir is a lucrative genre then there should be some fact checking. Or the authors have to sign a legal document saying it’s true and if it’s found to be false they have to pay back their royalties or be prosecuted.

Otherwise it’s fiction and some similarities to people alive or dead is purely coincidental. And I don’t think 2 million copies of a made up, fairly unpleasant middle aged couple running from financial ruin because of fraud would have sold at all, or at least not to the same audience for the same purpose.

I agree but to make this worse, it's not a Memoir, it's listed as non-fiction.
Those 2 little words are on the back cover- that's the category.
There's a bit more leeway with a memoir for hazy memories. Not the same as outright lies.

PhilippaGeorgiou · 08/07/2025 08:21

savory · 08/07/2025 07:25

It is a sad indictment of British Journalism that the recent pinnacle of investigative journalism is an expose of a paperback beloved by boomer book clubs: The Salt Path. They should have a pop at the Bible next !

So we've already managed to have fraudulent disability claims dragged into this, and now we have boomers.... HOUSE 😃

FWIIW As a so-called "boomer" I have not read the book, had no intention of watching the film, and can't think of anything worse than a book club - despite reading 60+ books a year.

AWanderingFool · 08/07/2025 08:23

ZiggyPlaysGuitarrr · 08/07/2025 08:13

I wonder if we'll hear from any of the other people featured in the book - if they even existed?
Polly, the friend whose outbuilding they lived in an renovated over winter. The rich wine merchant they spent a night with. The surfers, or the woodland homeless community. Dave and Julie, the friends they made along the way and did further walks with in the other books.

Dave and Julie came across as not particularly great people to me, and I have been wondering if they existed or, if they did, what they made of the book.

Bruisername · 08/07/2025 08:23

Interesting that James Frey could only get printed as truth so went with that

misery memoir has been a genre for so long now. I remember reading Twopence to cross the Mersey when I was a kid and it did have an impact on me because it was a real insight into poverty and a different time.

but as an adult I don’t read memoir as I read to escape tbh.

dh read the saltpath and he liked it but put it down at some point and never finished it. I read some of it but found the writing wasn’t great so moved on to another book I wanted to read. I don’t think her writing is good enough for fiction so I assume that’s why she went down the memoir route

Ddakji · 08/07/2025 08:33

AveriltheAvidReader · 08/07/2025 08:18

I agree but to make this worse, it's not a Memoir, it's listed as non-fiction.
Those 2 little words are on the back cover- that's the category.
There's a bit more leeway with a memoir for hazy memories. Not the same as outright lies.

That doesn’t mean it isn’t a memoir. Publishers have a bunch of categories to chose from and if a book falls under several they may well chose the most generic one. And not all publishers put a category on the back cover at all.

QuantumLevelActions · 08/07/2025 08:33

This reply has been deleted

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at the poster's request.

This is why this issue matters.

Thank you for sharing your experience @JanineLory sending best wishes.💐

User14March · 08/07/2025 08:35

Was the ‘nephew’ on LinkedIn genuine?

worrisomeasset · 08/07/2025 08:37

It is (inevitably) featured in the latest The Rest is Entertainment. I’ve not listened to it yet but am certain to do so later today. Marina Hyde says she is “TRANSFIXED” by the saga. Given that we’re now on Thread 3 on this subject, she’s far from being the only one.

Thread 3: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?
AldoGordo · 08/07/2025 08:38

Seems The Big Issue are distancing themselves now as well. They've removed this article published back in May.

<a class="break-all" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=www.bigissue.com/culture/books/the-salt-path-raynor-winn-big-issue-article-publication/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiH-NWu36yOAxWeQUEAHScpJ7EQFnoECCMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1rJIvGSQ1KA8DsJqWsR73y" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How Big Issue opened doors for publishing hit The Salt Path

26 May 2025 — Author Raynor Winn has recounted how an email to the Big Issue in 2017 kickstarted her story's journey to bestselling book and now, a major motion picture

https://www.bigissue.com/culture/books/the-salt-path-raynor-winn-big-issue-article-publication/

QuantumLevelActions · 08/07/2025 08:39

HonoriaBulstrode · 08/07/2025 00:37

Well this thread sent me off to YouTube to look up Gigspanner and I found a beautiful rendition of The Water is Wide. Just the thing to listen to before bedtime.

That is stunningly beautiful, thank you so much for sharing it.

Let's hope that something positive can come out of all this, and more of us listening to music like this and becoming aware of gigspanner is definitely a postive!

HolyPond · 08/07/2025 08:40

faffadoodledo · 08/07/2025 07:02

Checking in. But interested in how this will affect the future marketing of ‘true’ stories, and whether in fact readers will have such an appetite for them.

It’s very far from a new thing, though. The fake memoir purporting to be a true story is pretty much as old as commercial literature. Certainly high-profile examples in English from the early 19thc.

Some 20th/21st c examples on a way larger scale of deception, like pretending to have been held as a POW by the Viet Cong, or be the son of a Mafia kingpin, or someone pretending to have met his wife when she passed food through the barbed wire in Buchenwald (though that man was actually a Holocaust survivor — only the story of how he met his wife was fabricated).

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

List of fake memoirs and journals - Wikipedia

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

Ddakji · 08/07/2025 08:41

AveriltheAvidReader · 08/07/2025 07:47

The purpose of your reading is what matters most. Therefore, people with brain illnesses who used this memoir as a reason to give up their meds and start walking with heavy backpacks in the hope of a cure should be rightfully upset that they took ‘Raynor’ at her word.

There is a disclaimer* * 'Medical information is based on the author's personal experience and should not be relied on as a substitute for professional advice.'

@Wetoldyousaurus.
You wrote - The purpose of your reading is what matters most.

Not really. This is marketed as non-fiction. It is NOT marketed as a Memoir (see back cover.) That's the difference.

Yes, memories or rather former emotions can be hazy when writing a memoir, but an author has a duty to their reader to recollect events as honestly as possible. So yes, they need to present facts, the bare bones, as if it were a pressure cooker manual.

What you're missing is that the fundamental foundation for the book was dishonest. Especially the way the loss of their house and income was described. That's not 'subjective' it's a fact and , here, a lie.

And, I repeat, the publishers themselves say 'The author has stated to the publishers that, except in such respects [change of name for some people to protect the privacy of others] the contents of this book are true.'

Read that again. The author has stated that the contents of this book are true.

Edited

That it doesn’t say memoir on the back cover doesn’t mean it’s not a memoir. The publisher can only put one category in the back cover (and they don’t have to put one at all - many don’t - but they won’t put more than one). If it’s, say, both a memoir and travel writing, the publisher may plump for the more generic “non-fiction”.

AnnaQuayInTheUk · 08/07/2025 08:42

User14March · 08/07/2025 08:35

Was the ‘nephew’ on LinkedIn genuine?

It appears so. He's had his profile for a number of years. He's now deleted his post.

butwhomay · 08/07/2025 08:43

I’ll be interested to see what, if any, action “Raynor Winn” takes against the Observer. She’s said that the article is inaccurate so presumably she’ll sue for libel…? Or at the very least get a correction published.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 08/07/2025 08:44

Bruisername · 08/07/2025 07:11

Also once they’d made some money surely paying off some of the debt in France would have been a good idea so that when they eventually were found out there was less to talk about

They probably just convinced themselves that they had no debts in France.

HolyPond · 08/07/2025 08:44

AWanderingFool · 08/07/2025 08:23

Dave and Julie came across as not particularly great people to me, and I have been wondering if they existed or, if they did, what they made of the book.

I was always interested in Dave and Julie, simply because they were two of the only characters the narrator seemed to genuinely approve of that we saw more than a fleeting glimpse of, though it was never entirely clear to me why they were such Good Eggs.

EternalLodga · 08/07/2025 08:46

Video interviews of them give me a distinct "spent a lot of time in goa" vibe if you know what i mean..

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