Thread 4: 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 ...

Second article in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

Third article in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

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

Thread 3 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

They better not show up 'ere. We only got so much island that it's all walking round the cliffs in a circle and ruined bits of old stones in the middle that we we call house. Pay butcher and bread man by our own rules. Fish we got by laws of nature.

Don't need no fancy tally woman. Paying gubberment or herself more likely.

Garden? We 'as God's own. Looked after itself since days of Noah's last flood and the revival thus.

No chancers better try their luck on these shores. I got strong sons, I have. And I schooled 'em.

"If you ever hear any shrill voices coming off the beach and asking for shelter, be aware. It is either them or Phillip Schofield who does have unnatural tastes of anything of woman borne."

He wasn't diagnosed until two years after the events in The Salt Path.

In interviews she's said that consultants said he'd be lucky to last two years.

She says he has CBD but he wasn't diagnosed with that.

She's being very inaccurate.

I see what you mean, that quote is from the article but also both points are mentioned in the first book.

I even asked my DH what was I missing about the link between activism and the name Moth, it didn't make sense from the first time I read it!

I can't link but on Peter Knight's Gigspanner Facebook they have posted a link to her statement and are very obviously supporting her.

Many comments about how awful that Ray and Moth have had to share such personal information, and that she has successfully rebutted the allegations made.

Very odd parallel universe there.

Heloise Wood, Deputy News Editor, at Bookseller talks about fact checking in the publishing industry after claims the hit book The Salt Path which was made into a film isn’t really a truthful biography. From about 31 minutes.

The Media Show - Gregg Wallace, Salt Path row, Oasis reunion tour, migrant small boats media coverage - BBC Sounds

Back to the house in France, I think it's adjacent to one owned by his/her parents- acc to one of the comments on the DM piece?

I'm sure she feels aggrieved because there's a kernel of truth in her story, but she's obfuscated timelines and causation. In her own mind, she presumably sees these as artistic decisions. But the changes are so big that they're become significant misrepresentations.

Penguin don’t appear to have adjusted their marketing of the book. I am regularly checking the site curious to see if “unflinchingly honest” will be modified to maybe ‘personal reflection’?

“The Salt Path is an unflinchingly honest, inspiring and life-affirming true story of coming to terms with grief and the healing power of the natural world. Ultimately, it is a portrayal of home, and how it can be lost, rebuilt, and rediscovered in the most unexpected ways.”

“A real-life story about triumph over adversity and the healing power of nature.” The Weekly””

www.penguin.co.uk/authors/135080/raynor-winn

That isn't the companies house link, but the link you shared takes me to a penguin Facebook post from. 4 years ago and this comment is intriguing

"How many homes have you stolen Sacha and Avi ?"

The original article gave the year that Cooper passed. So the journalist must have fact checked his existence?

She could have made up a more believable story around taking a mortgage out to lend to a friend - losing it and then the house because they couldn’t keep up payments. Keep it brief rather that the outrageous cooper story she’s giving now

she seemed to relish being the victims of a court showdown and showing moth as magnanimous

@Aspanielstolemysanity

That's an interesting find. So Sacha and Avi would be new aliases for the couple? The style of name fits: kinds of whimsical and novelesque.

I think the gist of the story is true. Some artistic licence is to be expected. Even with the progression of his illness.
But the biggest issue for me is the covering up of her fraud on her employer and her statement does nothing to change that. Mistakes were made FFS. Straight out of a politician’s PR playbook.

Marking my place, thanks for the new thread.

I think the theft is a massive issue for her and her statement has not helped

the illness is another issue purely because of how she has presented it in the book - it’s not a slight exaggeration and the suggestion his symptoms went after walking is dangerous when she was adamant he has CBD and he may not

neurological illnesses are hard to diagnose so they could have been honest and say they don’t know what it is or how it will progress - that’s still a scary thing to hear

she needed someone to edit the statement, soften it and include an apology

I read the review by him and I think the gist of his review was not so much an endorsement of the book, but the spirit of it- he was advocating his patients should try to adopt positivity towards their diseases and perhaps look for ways to live with it (like Moth.)

I don't think there is any conflict of interest in the true sense because he didn't stand to gain from it.

Someone else has attached the review he did in a medical journal

he seems very invested in this particular patient

The worst part of this is the way she brushes off the loss of the £64K.
'Mistakes were made' is a cop out and purposely ambiguous.
Some people are professional liars and end up believing their own narrative (because the truth is too uncomfortable.)

Was the mistake the fact she stole the money? Or is she trying to say she genuinely 'lost' £64K of company income by poor book keeping?

If it's the latter, the police didn't believe her because, in her words, she couldn't produce 'evidence'- I assume that means she couldn't explain how the money had gone missing through accounting errors.

So rather than be accused and possibly prosecuted, she came to a private arrangement with the estate agent and repaid it, with her house as security on the loan.

If, at the same time, they lost money on another investment that went wrong, that's a different matter but it doesn't change the fact she appeared to have stolen £64K.

But what now? I think there will be people /readers who give her the benefit of the doubt but I also think her career as a writer is over (unless she uses another pseudonym.) But will she care? She's made enough money at 60-odd to see them through, so she's 'won' in effect.

That's there view I meant.

I don't think he was 'invested' in that sense, more the principle of being positive.

This is what worries me. Between the bizarre 2025 letter and the review and there seems to be something quite odd going on

Ooh Breaking news alert! The Daily Mail headline article is about them falling out with Farm Owner and moving out

The big difference between Moth and other people with the disease is not his positive attitude, but the unusually slow speed of the progression.

With no clear understanding of why that is, it is at best unwise to use Moth’s example as a template for other patient care.

Oh gosh, I feel so silly that I didn't explain it properly... Of Course , I can see where people may have got the wrong end of the stick... Let me explain...

So. I have a debt owing to me (because of an investment I made , in my dear old friend's property business out of the goodness of my heart to help him like because I am a lovely person). Then when I ask for the money back (years later!) and it's not available, - his bad , but I can forgive him- , rather than taking legal steps to get my debtor to pay me or seeking a county court judgement, I agree to accept a Loan from him rather than the cash I am rightfully owed. ( Actually it's rather a nice thing that my dear friend did there, don't you agree? )

Anyway, as it's a loan it's only obvious that it would come with interest, but thats only a small thing in the Ts&C's , not actually Real .. So therefore in the interests of friendly business, I agree that not only is the interest on that loan is 18% but it also comes with a charge on my home. But (duh! I do hope you are keeping up here .) Obviously I won't lose my home because actually He owes Me ( and any fule can see that ...chizz chizz... just thought I'd put a little literary reference in there being a Writer of some repute)

It all makes perfect sense, see? . I gave him my money, he cannot repay, so I agree to 'borrow' the money back that he can't pay me and pay him interest.. But I'd course it actually doesn't mean that I now have lost my original money and now am in debt to him , rather than him being in debt to me as he was before.

It's Obvious! Trust me , I am the experienced financial bookkeeper - Not you . I should know how debit and credit works. And all you people being mean to me just cannot see that .

AIBMS ? ( Am I being Monumentally Stupid? ) Of course not !
Can I pull the ( Lleyn sheep) wool over your eyes?

(Oh and btw .. if I did it was a mistake with the Hemmings, but I didn't .. they just can't run their business properly ..)

Explanation over. Now stop.being so mean, I am very upset.

Link to the latest Mail piece about the farm: Scandal-hit The Salt Path author and her husband 'fell out with millionaire benefactor after moving into his farmhouse' - as claims abound that they misled readers of their hit memoir | Daily Mail Online

The stories about the embezzlement conflict. Martin Hemming’s widow said she failed to deposit cash which isn’t an accounting error.