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

I am going to strongly third Stuart Maconie’s books. They are excellent.

My understanding from Raynor Winn's rebuttal is that the investment and the loan related to one person - Cooper (an old friend of Moth's) and his property company.

The Observer article (if I am reading it correctly) seems to say that the loan had nothing to do with Cooper or the original investment but came from a distant relative (James) in London who agreed to lend the Walker's £100k@18% because he didn't want to see any relative of his end up in prison. That seems like more than just semantics.

Even accepting that as true (their initial investment) it doesn’t explain why they needed the money back so badly that they were willing to take a loan charged on their house at 18% rather than write off the investment. Where did that £100k loan go, if not to the Hemmings?

Story seems to be dying now for lack of new information.

She's just floading the zone with words that seem like a "rebuttal", but are nothing of the sort. Even you, desperate to defend her, cannot make actual sense of it.

I missed that it was the excellent Hadley Freeman who left the Guardian because of her GC views.

I read Pies and Prejudice - very very funny and bang on the money I'm from Lancashire originally so he knows his towns and their pies.

I thought this was interesting, from an article in The Times today:

For some industry insiders the scandal highlights the perils of the lack of diversity in publishing — not simply of ethnicity, sexuality or age but of class and lived experience too. In retrospect it would have been handy to have someone in the office who knew how universal credit worked, for instance.

Although even the people on MN who have experience of universal credit etc can't work out what they did...

How the Salt Path fiasco happened — insiders on the crisis in publishing

You are reading her rebuttal as fact when ‘cooper’ is clearly a cover

the observer have seen legal documents that support their version that the loan was from the distant relative and was to cover the fact she had to pay back embezzled money

if you read her version it makes no sense - she is a bookkeeper and should understand finances just a little bit and would therefore understand taking the loan would mean they then have given Cooper £200k. Plus tied it to their house.

there are legal documents around what happened and those establish facts

I think the point made on R4 was that there were several eyebrows g raising things in the book that at a minimum an editor should have noted and queried

the point about a lack of diversity in publishing is good

I loved her book House of Glass

As someone who has had a real serious illness, I am furious that a neurologist (likely but not proven to be Tim Walker’s doctor) would suggest giving this load of hogwash (lies!) to patients with a devastating diagnosis. If it was his neurologist, how did he miss that the first time he saw Walker was in 2015, but the walk happened in 2013?

Covering all their bases here but certainly batting for them in this latest statement.

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/penguin-michael-joseph-delays-publication-of-raynor-winns-next-book

A statement from the publisher read: "Given recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health condition which has caused considerable distress to Raynor Winn and her family, it is our priority to support the author at this time. With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, have made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October. We will announce a new publication date in due course."

The book was due to be released on 23rd October 2025.

So what are you suggesting? That the Walkers or PRH have bunged this doctor a significant sum of money to write a positive review in a publication distributed free of charge to a little over 4,000 neurologists in 2020, by which time the book was already an international best seller? A review which, at best, would have generated sales in the low double figures? A review that wasn't picked up by Wikipedia until earlier this year, 5 years after the review was published and 7 years after the book came out?

And, unlike you, I don't see the review as "oddly favourable". He clearly liked the book. He uses a common saying ("when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up"), albeit one that some on here seem to object to. He links it to recently published scientific papers suggesting that physical exercise can benefit some patients suffering with degenerative neurological conditions. And says, "there can be life, even when there is no cure", so he is definitely not buying into the idea that going on long walks somehow cures TW.

interesting but not surprising

I think they’ll hope people are financially illiterate enough that they won’t question the fraud much longer and accept her version

I'm not defending her in the least!

Based on the Observer article (which seems to have been well researched) Raynor Winn doesn't appear to have a leg to stand on and I fully sympathise with all the outraged readers of her books (including me) who feel totally conned!

Ha ha ha. Nice cover story about "protecting her". That was going to be one of their big pre-Christmas releases.

No way will it get published now.

That's Penguin covering their own arses, not hers or Timothy's.

Watch as more distancing happens.

And there's no way she put out that drivel "rebuttal" with anyone's advice. They're just linked to on the bottom of every page of her website. That will change soon, too.

The agent will be the next one to cut ties, mark my words. Probably citing "Giving Raynor time and space to deal with the current issues, greatly enjoyed representing her, pls think of of the embezzler" etc etc.

I think I can now figure out the extent of their "due diligence" if they haven't noticed that the "intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health condition" turns out to be true - he didn't have that diagnosis pre-walk, the diagnosis is conjecture in the absence of anything better to explain his symptoms. They clearly aren't even paying attention to what their own author has said.

But equally, of course they have "delayed" the publication of a book that everyone is now going to go over with a fine toothed comb to find the lies.

A sort of jokey Channel 4 News take on this and quite a few of the vox pops don't care. They can definately style this out.

www.channel4.com/news/the-salt-path-author-defends-herself-against-fabrication-claims

Agreed. That's a handy cover story to delay publication

No, barking up the wrong tree there I think.

I hope Osman and Hyde do a follow up piece in their next TRIE.

We really are in a post truth world if they style this out. Walker's statement only confirms much of the Observer's story, as do the medical letters they released.

And yet...

It's so depressing.

😥

A lot of people have read the rebuttal and thought ‘oh well that puts that to bed’

i wonder if there will be a follow up pointing out the obvious flaws and dodgy timeline