Thread 5: 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 item in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

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Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

I don't think the Observer article is suggesting that she fabricated the illness.

I think it is questioning the wisdom of assigning Moth's improved health to walking when his symptoms suggest a very atypical case or a different diagnosis.

I think part of the problem here is that the need to create a hook to sell the book puts pressure on the writer to tell a particular story, so Penguin should take some of the blame.

Whatever, the Walkers truly believe, the idea that the walking could reverse his symptoms has been repeatedly seized upon by interviewers.

@Wiltingasparagusfern

Sally Walker has, over the last seven years, both in her books and in interviews, said that in 2013, just as they lost their home, that her husband Tim was diagnosed as potentially having CBD, a terminal disease. She has said they couldn't confirm the diagnosis because that could only be done post mortem. She has spoken freely about consultants in 2013 saying he would be lucky to have another two years of life.

However, he was actually diagnosed with potential CBS, in June 2015, two years after the walk detailed in TSP. CBS is a syndrome that shows symptoms, and they were, as stated in the letter by the consultant, very mild.

In her books she states how going on long walks of over 600 miles across challenging terrain reduced the symptoms of his terminal disease, and in her last book (Landlines) said that brain scans of before and after their most recent walk show that the disease had regressed.

CBD doesn't regress, it just gets worse, and is usually fatal within about 8 years.

CBS on the other hand, can be fairly mild, and was in Tim's case, as evidenced by the letter Sally Walker herself produced.

That's the issue.

Raynor very clear in Good Grief Podcast Moth became sick when NOT walking. Studying at desk meant not at one with nature etc. This is what sells a cynic might say. You’re right that said.

you have to wonder at her arrogance though with her rebuttal as it’s so easily being torn apart.

the statement has limited her options. If she turns around now with a sobbing apology everyone will just think she doesn’t mean it because why put the first statement out if she didn’t think she’d get away with it

given the type of person she is coming across as i would expect mental health will be used. She’s quite happy to play fast and loose with medical issues after all.

The farmer remembers the night that the Walkers suddenly left. While in the fields bailing, he saw two vehicles leaving the property at 2am. “The bailiffs knocked the doors in the next morning,” he said. “I had the shock of my life that they had gone.”

Sounds like a great opener to a best seller!

Maybe he could ask Sally for her publishers details. And we know that they've now got a vacancy for October, so...

Although I doubt he was bailing (even though the Walkers had). More like baling.

Dead ringers clip starts at 6.40.

Thanks you the way you beautifully describe it makes me want to read it ! I wonder if a better writer could rewrite it , sort out the 'errors' , admit the truth with a dose of contriteness and call it a Director's Cut.

Wow, The Times piece really dials it up, while still holding back. Now we have a version that doesn't even have bailiffs at the door with RayMoth hiding in a cupboard, which pretty much sets up the opening of the book and her idea to walk. Instead, they departed in darkness and the bailiffs smashed their way in.

What is true about any of the story apart from losing a house (through theft and fraud), Moth having a problem (undiagnosed), and going for a walk? Are the anecdotes made up? Is most of it fiction? It should never have been published as non-fiction that's for sure.

Thank you to the person who shared the times article https://archive.ph/g3sOO

I was quite taken that according to the relative asked for money, Moth had said Raynor took several credit cards out in his name without his knowledge. If we can believe that, does it indicate she has some kind of impulsive money spending problem? Would he have been angry around this time? I know I would be if put in that situation. Yet he seems to have been very loyal to her.

Agreed. It also begs the question was her own credit rating knackered at this point that she wouldn’t take them out in her own name?

I think she would have been best doing a mea culpa, apologising and saying she was going on a long walk to reset her moral compass

now people are going to keep digging and it looks like it could be really murky

Tbf it could also be that he’s really bad with money and she’s always having to find it

@sualipa John Culshaw has sadly left

No he hasn’t. He was in tonight's programme.

I think they might just be very bad with money - the kind of people who look at the price of property and think they can turn it into a business, but without any idea of the additional costs, so they quickly get into trouble.

But that also raises questions about how they managed to get a mortgage with apparently no income - were banks and building societies just really lax in the 90's?

And how would they have had money to invest in somebody else's business?

Also how did she get jobs bookkeeping?

I'm now very interested in their move from Burton-upon-Trent where Tim was working in the family business as a plasterer. Their story that they wanted to bring their children up rurally sounds plausible. But could they have been moving away from potential problems even then?

The problem for the Walkers is that every single aspect of what Sally Walker has told us is now up for scrutiny. And I very much doubt they did all of the walking they said they did. I think they did bits of it, and she's filled in the rest. The walks they do are not for the faint hearted. Apparently the SWCP is like ascending four everests!

And look for info about the Cape Wrath Trail. This is a walk that they claim they did when Tim was apparently much worse than he was back in 2013.

From the website www.capewrathtrail.org.uk

Although some sections follow paths and tracks, there are also many parts of the route which are pathless; walkers attempting the trail shoud have a high degree of navigational skill, and always carry a map and compass. There are also several unbridged river crossings which can become dangerous or even impossible in spate conditions. Altogether the route is usually regarded as the greatest backpacking challenge in the UK.

Honestly, the Winn/Walkers attempted spin that 'nasty bullies force us to reveal a few carefully selected private medical documents, how intrusive and distressing, woe is us' is such absolute bollocks!

How can anyone be taken in by this?

IF the Winn/Walkers have documentation which backs up the medical story as described through multiple books and numerous interviews, then all they had to do was show them to the Observer, who would verify, then report in summary 'we have seen documentation which supports the following facts —'.

You know, journalism. Documents remain private. IF they exist, that is.

An aside, ‘Julie & Dave’ in TSP feel very akin to Dawn & Pete in Gavin & Stacey.

You can be bad with money and not embezzle your employer out of over £60,000.

One thing that I haven't seen noted here is that in her books she says she's always worked with the land. That's not true, either.

Many think inc reputable news sources Raynor/Moth have shown clear proof. Up until now anyway…

From the outside it appears she's a fantasist with an awful lot of narcissistic traits and perhaps Tim and Sally have trauma bonded. I also think Tim has a form of Stockholm syndrome.
That's just my opinion for what it's worth.

Thanks, that clarifies it for those of us that haven’t read the book. So even if he is unwell, she essentially seems to have exaggerated the extent of his heath issues and used a fictional timeline for it.

Absolutely - it takes something else to get to the the next step - spending other people's money.

The Times article is absolutely damning in the detail.