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

I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions.

IIRC, according to the Observer she didn't face criminal sanctions because she "vanished" before she was due in court?

If someone I trusted embezzled me out of £9k, I'd be very pissed off.

She vanished before a follow up interview. She avoided charges and court by paying back all the money, so technically it’s true that she was never charged with a crime.

Here's another one:

In desperation, we briefly tried running a book-based house raffle like others had done, but quickly realised it was a mistake as it clearly wasn’t going to work. We cancelled it and refunded the few participants.

Oh, is that the raffle where you said the house had no mortgage or charges against it?

I think the day she actually admits she's done anything wrong will coincide with the Ice Age in Hell.

Whatever else comes to light with this sorry tale, I'll always be thankful that someone mentioned the Water is Wide by Gigspanner in an earlier thread. What a beautiful piece of music.

What usually happens is the newspaper prints a story, wait for the person concerned to release an explanation, then follow up with more allegations.

Like Wimbledon, but with Dominic Cummins.

What the hell is this:

In 2008, we asked for the money back. He said he didn’t have it but offered us a loan through his company. We agreed. Because the loan was coming from his company, he said it had to follow the company’s standard loan terms: 18% interest, which he would cover, and a charge on our home in his name. He assured us this was standard practice and only temporary as he would soon repay the loan to his company, and the charge would be removed.

So he couldn't pay you back your money, but he could loan you the exact same amount of money? But then he is going to pay the loan back to his company? That he's put a charge on your house for?

This is such utter bollocks. I think she's hoping that by flinging a load of words at it, people will be fooled.

ALL THE OTHER DEBT

The lady who bought their house in 2016, suddenly starts receiving many letters addressed to the Walkers. These are letters from debt collection agencies, speeding fines, and so on.

The Observer says they investigated and found 'at least' five county court judgements.

Compared with:
Sally Walker says over the years following The Salt Path she tracked down all her creditors and repayed them. She will happily pay the garage proprietor.

She says she doesn't owe hundreds of thousands of pounds to those who evicted them as the Observer says she does [it doesn't say this at all]

She says she put a postal redirection in place for three years after they left the house [this fits with it ending and all the letters arriving]

What she doesn't address is the fact they had so much debt to begin with, other than the years of the court case being stressful, debt that in 2016 they were still being pursued for. She also doesn't mention the five county court judgements.

@Uricon2 Ooh, I've had a few incidences of '70's neon kaleidoscope zig-zag rip effect' in my visual field, only for 45 minutes or so each time. Filed under 'yet another weird offering on the Long Covid merry-go-round'. Impossible to ignore, very disturbing to function through, totally freaked me out.
Big love for living with that sort of thing all the time ♡.

Alternative timeline:

2011 - TW is having symptoms that have necessitated various medical tests,but everything comes back negative. No diagnosis reached.

2013 - the Walkers are made homeless. They can't work as TW isn't fully well and SW has no job references.They take off and walk.

2015 (early) - SW mum dies.

2015 (summer) TW receives putative diagnosis of a very mild form of CBS. Physio has been helping.

Post 2015 (summer) - they get the idea of jiggling the dates and writing a book about their walk, neglecting to mention that the subsequent diagnosis had NOT been made at the time.

And since that's a big part of the start of TSP - they were made homeless and got this horrible terminal diagnosis in the space of a few days -- this suggested alternative timeline is quite a big bending of the truth/tugging of the heartstrings.

The thing is, if you were writing fiction 'based on my own experience', in the style of James Herriot, none of that would matter. It would be completely logical and sensible to shove everything together in one big inciting incident. That's what fiction does. It's what non-fiction does not.

THE HOUSE IN FRANCE

Observer says bought by Tim Walker in 2007. Woman who bought their Welsh house says debt letters arrived from the French authorities in 2016. Locals say the Walkers visited and stayed in caravans.

Sally Walker says they bought the house, by remortgaging the Welsh house, in order to prevent a developer buying it. She says they haven't been there since 2007, and that they owe no money and no council tax there. They tried to sell it in 2013, but were told it was worthless.

Again....how altruistic of them to remortgage their house to save a ruin from developers!!!

It's not a surprise to read this. Haven't got a steady leg to stand on.

It's just unbelievable that Sally's recent statement was off the advice of legal advice.

And borrowed to pay back what she'd stolen and got the injured party to sign an NDA

Another thing, he was withdrawing from Pregabalin because they forgot it or something, which is quite harsh on the body (have done it myself) this can result in quite odd symptoms, people have struggled for years after, I will try and find some links

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8411313/

Mentions some patients had neurological symptoms after withdrawal. I had weird eye flickers and one sided stuff going on which was quite weird. Still get some of it.

Oh no, I didn’t mean that it referred to the neurologist.

So he couldn't pay you back your money, but he could loan you the exact same amount of money?

😂😂😂😂😂

If I hadn't stolen money, no way would I agree to pay it back. And I certainly wouldn't take on "debt" to pay back money I hadn't stolen.

How stupid does she think we are?

Yep, because Sal and Tim also need a few quid. Those Toast coats won't just buy themselves.

We need a new thread I think.

Are we sure the letters aren't written by Dr ChatGPT?

That aside, I have known of two individuals, both middle class professionals, who managed to claim their work pensions early and claim some disability benefits by repeatedly going to their GP or A&E with mystery symptoms. One used to freely admit to turning up at the hospital every few months with chest pains and palpitations just to keep his record of hospital attendance and scans, etc. up. He suddenly got better when he came into a decent inheritance and is now a ripe old age.

I was confused by the DaTscan, I thought he would have had that to help rule out Parkinsons, as it shows the Dopamine transmitters? Not to diagnose CBD. Then in the 3rd book he had another one and in Sally/Ray's words it showed his brain was full of "Christmas lights" but I was told that is a bad thing as the spaces where the transmitters were show as light? And I don't understand how a DaTscan would show your CBD was gone?
Also I looked back at my diagnosis letter and it said in bold on the first line what my diagnosis was, then why they came to that conclusion, then the treatment plan. Surely if Sally/Ray feels she needs to share Moth's diagnosis she can just go on the NHS App and do a screen shot of the coded entry from the GP health record? Rather than all the vague letters?

I think there'll be some people who read her statement, think "thank goodness" and continue to believe in her.

So, yes, I think she thinks everyone is like that.

I know. The buying of the house in France bit of that statement is deeply stupid and I can't believe it made it's way past a lawyer or.PR person

Why, it short of cash, would anyone do that?!