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

But the "tentative diagnosis" happened 2 years after their apparent walk.

Except that tentative diagnosis of a terminal condition came 2 years after the walk (dated 2015), so at the very least the desperation and anxiety in the book is rather unfounded if they hadn't yet known about that possibility.

It's pretty clear from her own account that the embezzlement happened.

The illness - the tentative diagnosis did happen and I'm sure they were scared. It seems to have been retrofitted to the start of the walk to make a better story.

Then yours is the book that I really would like to read! I hope you stay swimming and stay well

@Aspanielstolemysanity oh I agree and don’t think she is naive either. But she is trying to come across that way.

Sooooo, does anyone think that this statement and the letters haven't helped her case at all?

In fact, it just gives the press more to pick over. We've already demolished it, here on MN!

This includes Timmoth at about 54m.56s. It is funny he says that it was a complete surprise that she could write, presumably meaning until she'd written TSP. What about How Not To Dal dy Dir, published in August 2012 as Izzy Wyn-Thomas?

Might as well say I cooked my employer’s books in the years before the pandemic of 2020.

My book would be very dull largely because I am honest to a fault

So have I understood correctly that they invested in a friends business, that friend lied about the investment’s performance, and then loaned them a sum equal to the investment they had made with a high interest rate and a charge on their house?

What a friend!!

Also, if you need money, and are prepared to let somebody put a charge on your house, why not remortgage at a much lower rate?

It's clear that there's no letters of original diagnosis relating back to 2013 when in August of that year they set out to walk the path. I did a bit of it in February 2012 and it was partially unwalkable, despite beautiful weather.

Great I'm genuinely happy for you. As for them, I’m willing to cut a bit of slack. Yes, they've clearly made mistakes in the past that they ought to be honest about (so have I—but I’m not a million-selling author). And yes, their writing may be somewhat tawdry and uneven, but it struck a chord and moved millions. That counts for something.

They went through a life crisis one involving a potentially devastating disease and they coped the way many writers do: by turning their pain into a story. I just don’t see the hanging offence here. What I do see is a worrying level of schadenfreude in watching them fall. And frankly, that says more about us than it does about them.

Thread 4 coming. Bear with.

Because the diagnosis did not come before their walk. It came two years afterwards.

That's what Sally says. Never mind that it makes no sense.

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.

It didn't occur to them to seek professional advice before entering into this dubious-sounding agreement?

My friends father died from MND and there's very little to 'reverse' it apart from drugs.

Parkinson's, Dementia and CBD I've witnessed as a carer post PA career. None of them are reversible.

I am well aware of that. That is the point I was making

Based on what they've been able or chosen to release so far, I think it's worth remembering how few of us could produce detailed correspondence from over a decade ago. I throw most of mine away and would struggle to find anything from 2013 myself. There seems to be a huge presumption of all enveloping guilt here rather than a fair hearing.

The letter 2015: ‘But it is clear he is very affected very mildly especially given the long history.’

"In the darkness, I began to believe the doctors and accept that I had been in denial, to realize that their words could be true. No matter how much I fought it, he would die..."
The Salt Path, p. 209

Writing about 2014, early summer I think, whilst they're at Polly's house.

@HonoriaBulstrode indeed - but why pay for an hour’s legal advice when it’s only your home and a huge investment at stake…

Oh hello Boss so you say I stole 64k .. Well obvs I didn't, because I'm not that sort of person. Oh you think you have records showing that ? Well of course it wasn't me .. perhaps you've made a mistake? Not reported everything you should to HMRC ? Your wife ? etc ..No? Ok then just to keep you happy and make this go away .. of course ill give you that money then . No problem.... Just sign this
.
I mean if you were innocent, if it was you, would you do that rather than try and prove your innocence? .

No? I didn't think so ...

It being based on lies, stealing and obfuscation counts for something IMO. What "moved millions" was a deception and the fact they thought it wouldn't unravel says quite a lot about them.

I honestly don't care what anyone thinks my comments say about me.