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

He got AI to write it, the style is tell-tale ChatGPT. One of my work colleagues uses ChatGPT to analyse text all the time, and they all read like this blog post.

Unproven but one hint is the neurologist's letter head on the 2019 letter shows the same long list of letters (academic qualifications) after his name as the reviewer. Also, his name fits in the redacted space perfectly. And he's based at the specialist unit in Liverpool where RW says they went to receive the diagnosis. Of course, could be coincidence. But there is enough to imply they are the same person.

@prh47bridge

i thought someone upthread had made a link on the neurologist

wonder what the next meet up will be like though with the 9 in the observer article!!! Im sure this is causing a lot of debate in the relevant medical profession

The narrative in TSP and the prize draw for their farmhouse by Gangani Publishing makes no sense.

According to the events recounted in TSP, the court judgement allowing the creditors to repossess the Walkers' farmhouse occurred in June 2013. They then had 5 days to vacate the property and set off on thier walk on the SWCP soon after (6 Aug 2013). Yet Gangani Publishing (which only ever published one book (How not to Dal dy Dir by Izzy Winn-Thomas) was set up on 21 March 2012 and dissolved on 30 July 2013. The company (Gangani Publishing Ltd) was set up soon after the court judgment in Feb 2012 that the Walkers had 12 months to find the money to repay the loan (£150,000). So if they were actively seeking to auction their house between March 2012 and July 2013 the eventual court decision to evict them in July 2013 can hardly have come as a great surprise.

Am I missing something here?

Tbh Gigspanner are desperately trying to salvage their tour from the tattered ruins and maybe keeping their real thoughts hidden for now in case the tour can be rescued for a later date. They're erring on the side of caution with their careers in mind I would guess.

Tbh Gigspanner are desperately trying to salvage their tour from the tattered ruins and maybe keeping their real thoughts hidden for now in case the tour can be rescued for a later date. They're erring on the side of caution with their careers in mind I would guess.

With those timings I would imagine they knew they were trying to auction something they didn’t really own. Perhaps they truly thought they’d raise enough to cover both loans and have some to spare as otherwise makes no sense as they are losing the house either way

Accoring to AI maybe not ! The passage you’ve shared does not obviously appear to be written by AI, and it’s quite sophisticated, nuanced, and demonstrates a solid grasp of journalistic critique, literary interpretation, and rhetorical analysis. That said, it's possible it could have been written by a human or a well-prompted AI — both are plausible in today’s writing landscape. Here's an analysis:

I didn’t realise Sally’s first book was about city finance and a beginner’s guide to asset stripping.

How ironic given she stripped assets from her employer.

She says ‘her book ‘grew from the idea that nothing is as it seems and every story changes in light of the readers viewpoint’.

One of the weirdest things for me is the attempted deal with The Observer she describes in her statement:

"the Observer were offered the opportunity, by my lawyers, to discuss in detail the allegations made against me to correct their inaccurate account and to be guided on the truth, on the basis that the discussion would not be made public."

That's not how newspapers work! The journalist had been tipped off about a story and, rightly, approached the Walker-Winns for their side. Why on earth would they do a deal that meant getting the WW's version meant they weren't allowed to publish it? And why, given that rumours about them were already circulating and were realistically going to come out, wouldn't RW want to counter them with her 'truthful' account, instead of trying to hush it up?

The fact she wanted to do this seems an oddly damning thing to admit to in a statement intended to uphold her good name.

It also seems to be the same sort of bonkers logic that says you lend a friend money and agree to a loan, with interest, secured against your house when you want it back.

Raynor Winn has one appointment, according to companies house. I'm aware of Sally and Timothy Walker having a limited company. Are you even legally able to use a pseudonym on companies house?

Getting AI to investigating possible AI seems very meta 🤣

Digital rabbit holes lack the earthiness of real ones and are less interesting. From Reditt - maybe this is the killer fact that will do it for them ;

Some of her prices are off -In 2013 A fudge bar was priced at 20p on the packaging not 25p, however this may be due to writing several years later.

It also seems to be the same sort of bonkers logic that says you lend a friend money and agree to a loan, with interest, secured against your house when you want it back.

Bonkers logic is the thread that runs though everything.

I do agree with some PPs that there’s witch-hunt-like element to some of the reaction (not just on MN) - and unfortunately social media means anyone who is revealed to have done something wrong (or even just unpopular/controversial/challenging) will be personally attacked. I saw that Milli Hill defended Winn on the basis that she’s a human being and woman in the centre of a shitstorm and it’s a horrible place to be. I don’t support any personal attacks or hounding of individuals.

But I also think people love a whodunnit and using the internet to investigate, and situations like this let everyone have a go like we’re doing our own investigative podcast. Arguably if you are lying to the public and making money from lies it’s reasonable for the public to try to check it out. I do worry for anyone going through what Raymoth are experiencing now but it’s going to happen because the Internet records a trail in all kinds of ways. (Oddly as it contributes to so much disinformation, it can also keep track of reality in lots of incidental ways.)

I did it myself when I was doing some freelance work for a client who was always boasting about his brilliant business and contacts in high places, but was breaking several health and safety rules and also terrible at paying on time. I turned detective and found his business was newly registered after his previous one had been wound up by a court order, that he’d had disputes with previous business partners and that his new business was in breach of various regulations. It helped me confirm my suspicions that he wasn’t to be trusted and to avoid.

That’s the modern world and what you have to accept if you are dishonest - people will go looking - whether it’s finding out that your new boyfriend is a married cheater, or that someone had various previous identities or court cases etc.

Having said all that I do think a lot of this is on the publisher. They could have done a lot more checking and interrogating in the first place. They are letting her take all the shit now and denying responsibility, having made a lot more money from it than she did.

Yes forgetting the exact price of a fudge bar is perfectly forgivable. And I’m sure there are many minor errors in her book that really don’t matter - like what day they did something, or not mentioning visiting their son or even taking buses a little more often than they say or whatever

the problem is the big lies and the amount of detail she went into on them and then the subsequent repeating of those lies

you had Jason Isaac’s tearful over them having been the victims of the horrible Cooper when the story is actually very different!!

It is truly odd as there is nothing on companies house linking the two names to indicate that Raynor Winn and Sally Walker are in fact the same person.

Also interesting that Emaus - where she was a Director as Raynor Winn - was a homeless charity but she was on the board for less than a year.

Her statement evidences that she lives in an alternate universe when it comes to the truth. She is now trying desperately to manipulate and obfuscate but the reality is, she has signed the death warrant of her career with what she released on her website yesterday.

The letters she has made available show that the first consultation they had with the 'top dog' neurologist wasn't until 2015. Not a smart move as this post-dates the events of The Salt Path.

Also not a smart move as the letter makes it very clear that this is a very mild disease, that he can't really give it a definitive name, and there is absolutely no mention of it being terminal or life limiting in any way. In fact the final line of the letter is the doctor encouraging him to go ahead with taking a horticultural training course! Not something you'd say to a patient at death's door.

The letters prove he does have a neurological condition, yes. But not that he was diagnosed in 2013 to coincide with the loss of their house, and not that this was a terminal diagnosis. Both of those elements are key to the narrative of The Salt Path and so render the entire premise of the book fiction.

She's also essentially admitted that she did steal the money as The Observer reported. 'Mistakes were made' - understatement of the century - and the fact that she does confirm that she had to pay the money back evidences that she nicked it. Why would you pay money back you'd never stolen?

Sally Walker aka Raynor Winn can reasonably have never expected to have received this much fame and fortune from what is a not particularly well written memoir. For some reason when it came out it hit a zeitgeist and with the power of Penguin's marketing team behind it, it became a publishing sensation far beyond what can have been her wildest dreams. I can totally understand how everything snowballed. Unfortunately that has led to her having to continue to spin a pack of lies over many years, and now it's all come unravelled. The exposure generated by the film has been their undoing; as is often the case with these kinds of things, they were just that little bit too greedy, and now they've lost everything. Once again.

Someone further up said that a comparison was made to 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' books but that they haven't read them as they sound awful. I just wanted to jump in and say that those books are wonderful and absolutely nothing like The Salt Path, which I hated, and like others I was in the minority view at my book club and made to feel like I was a miserable old cynic!

Well I feel like Captain Holt in B99 now.

So much sense in this post. It sums up my feelings very well, thanks WhatterySquash.

No, you can't use a pseudonym on Companies' House.

It's considered fraud.

I saw that Milli Hill defended Winn on the basis that she’s a human being and woman in the centre of a shitstorm and it’s a horrible place to be.

I really don't understand this. Are we not meant to criticise someone for embezzling 65K from their employer because of their gender? Are we meant to believe she did it by accident due to being a silly woman and laugh it off with a "what's she like" eye roll.

If the shoe was on the other foot, Moth was the successful author and Ray/Sally was the one making Lazarus like recovery from a terminal diagnosis by walking I"m pretty sure the reporting would be the same and I know that I definitely would still type every word of my previous posts.

Agree with all that but really just wanted to say how your user name tickled me a great deal. Hats off to you. 😂

Just trying to catch up but this struck me. It's from the original Observer piece and relates to the purchase of the French property.

So £90K approx +£10.5K approx at 18% interest. Very close to "£100K at 18% interest".

Sorry if this is totally irrelevant or been mentioned. I'm not sure how it fits into the twists and turns, if at all!

ETA so sorry, it hasn't copied but the document (signed by Tim) is in the CH article.

This is the house where Moth was head gardener, it was saved by Clough Williams-Ellis (of Portmeirion fame) who knew the sisters who lived there and also had an interest in traditional Welsh architecture/heritage. It is stunningly beautiful but very much country cottage (albeit v large) rather than stately home. I imagine head gardener probably was one gardener directing volunteers.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/wales/plas-yn-rhiw