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

Yes, she said she was digging but not ready to share yet.

And if I remember rightly, they see the play at very short notice courtesy of some kindly stranger who insists on buying them a couple of tickets on the spot and won't hear of taking any payment.

they still owned the doer-upper they'd bought in south-west France, just a few miles from a magnificent chateau belonging to one of Tim Walker's brothers and next door to a pigeon tower owned by his younger sibling.

From the DM piece today (links above)

This stood out to me. If you're on your uppers and your sibling owns a chateau (magnificent or otherwise, we all know what the Mail can be like 😂t's a wonder they haven't put the value of it in) and you had a sufficiently close relationship to buy property nearby a few years before, wouldn't you turn to them for help/somewhere to stay?

The sibling's property doesn't look like a chateau (although there is a derelict Pigeonnier on the land) From the google earth photos, Le Village du Dropt consists of 6-8 pretty basic dwellings surrounded by farm land. I am also baffled as to why any developer might have wanted to buy the land/property which the Walkers bought in 2007.

Sore throat excuse!

With such a history of financial shenanigans of one sort or another perhaps they were worried that there might be a flag on their passports and didn't want to risk trying to cross the border to France.

Edit for typo.

I think some of concern over the small inconsistencies spring from the homelessness narrative. Raynor/Sally got her first article published on this theme. If a core thread of her narrative is being poor/without food etc then skipping off for visits with possible opps for meals/showers/clothes washing etc becomes slightly more significant. The whole story seems wobbly. Some readers are happy to overlook this but others are not.

Raynor/Sally believes she has made good all her financial debts. That doesn’t seem to be accurate so the least she can do is ensure any outstanding debts were paid.

On the face of what has been emerged, some recognition of the stress her actions and words have caused others would be a welcome gesture.

At some point, Penguin might feel they have a case to try and get some money back from her but as everyone involved has done very well out of the book then that doesn’t seem too likely.

I doubt she will even act as a cautionary tale within the industry.

She seems to be a risk taker, hoping never to be caught out. This time she has and in some ways laid the groundwork that has created the interest in this investigation - justice of sorts perhaps.

My thoughts exactly.

Yes, and I think it's telling that the play itself is glossed over with very minimal description - perhaps surprising given its a rare bit of entertainment for them. We get the name of the play but not what it's about and not much else if I remember correctly (read it the other day). I could be wrong but I think the only thing that RW writes is something along the lines of "singing voices swirled and reverberated into the night across the cliffs, to the sound of sea birds".

But of course it's likely they were at the end of leg 1 when the play opened so it seems unlikely they ever saw it beyond an advertised poster while passing on the walk.

And why are they buying a property in 2007 when they seem to have had money troubles at the time? - this seems to overlap with the period when money was being taken from the Hemmings?

Just joining in the fun - but how do we know he didn’t sneak off for a couple of miles, hole up in a pub for a few hours, and then reappear a mile from the finish claiming a triumphant 8h 30 time? I’ve no idea how rigorous the checks are for the stragglers out on the edges if there are any at all.

There is a lovely small chateau/vineyard/gite owned by someone called Walker 30 mins away. The first name of the owner doesn't match Tim's siblings and there's no reason I can see to think it is in any way connected to Raymoth. I wonder though if the Mail conflated "a few miles" with "30 mins" and made such a connection? You'd hope not, but.

My head is spinning with Cooper/James/Stan/Anthony Browne so probably overreading.

Brilliant! Megachurch 😂😂😂

its just a couple of sentences. Mostly about the theatre itself which is of course well known. Although she was apparently sat next to the son of one of the gardeners, or so she says that he says.

they were lucky to get a ticket on the day though, performances are often sold out. Maybe opera is different.

Yes, one of the creditors was quoted in DM this week saying the debt owing to them was not settled by the house sale:

"One of them, 71-year-old Christian Martin, told the Mail this week that in reality he and his partner had 'never got anything out of it' because after the mortgage was paid off, there was no equity left. 'It was meant to be worth around £300,000 but they eventually sold it for around £200,000,' he said."

The SW statement claims they have followed up on all known debts, but we've since read that locals have disputed that. I wonder if Raymoth really have paid anyone back at all since coming into £3m from TSP-related income?

There may be no cautionary tale.

The original story of the house repossession never made sense and always suggested that the story didn't add up. Penguin could have asked for a proper explanation, but if that had led them to withdrawing the deal, they wouldn't have made all the money they have made from books 1-3.

I wonder if the film company will lose money? The film was doing very well in the UK until last week - was that enough to cover their costs?

It's two siblings, one owns the pigeon loft, another owns a chateau a few miles away.

One thing strikes me about the family. They seem to have done well for themselves overall. (Good on them!) The rich uncle able to lend £100,000. The brother with the chateau. The other brother owning a bit of property and land.

I wonder if she was thinking, we should have that, we deserve it, and so she stole extensively so that the Welsh house wasn't just a doer upper by a couple of dreamers with not much money, but something that matched the nice properties of relatives. And of course they too had to buy a property in France.

According to a local, Tim's dad said the idea was to do it up and live there.

But events of 2008 put paid to that.

Yes I wonder if they feel they deserve money and aren’t obliged to repay a particularly the loan

i I hope that any statement she comes out with next rows back on her victim blaming of Martin hemmings

It’s interesting that Raynor’s feelings about Moth’s CBD & inevitable premature death are much more fully explored in The Wild Silence. We began our epic walk of the coastal path with no sense of hope or possibility’. ‘ Moth had been told he couldn’t survive’. Her mother’s death & his horrible demise movingly connected.

That production of Iolanthe was put on by the Cambridge University Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Amateur (although I'm sure they are very good!) in late September just maybe for tickets at the Minack I suppose but othrwise what @Toomuchstufff said, very much in demand.

(The Minack is beautiful but I had the worst episode of vertigo ever and was panicking about the children I'd dragged along to see the place "falling off the edge". In the end they lead me to safety)

It's not completely clear how the events of 2008 prevented them from doing the house up or selling it.

Are you genuinely baffled, or suggesting the developer explanation is made up? There was discussion of the likelihood of a developer wanting the land a few threads back and the consensus was they wouldn't. Why are will still giving weight to Raymoth cover stories?

Yup. Again, it's all about the feelings. Extracting an emotional response from the reader. Very, very light on fact.

The detail is about how things taste, or feel or sound or look. It's the ice cream, the birds, the weather, the hard ground. Dates, times, places? Not so much!

MyGodMyThighs · Today 08:47
I live nearby. One strange thing - there are quite a few small cider producers locally and their produce is always visible in local restaurants and shops. Theirs? I’ve never seen it. Which does seem odd especially with the obvious marketing opportunity of the TSP connection. There must be a reason.

sualipa · It may be a "tax-advantaged" business. Owning farmland has historically been a way for wealthy individuals to invest and reduce their tax liabilities

Does this mean no cider was produced on the farm? I haven’t read the book so I don’t know if they go into detail about running a cider making business.
MyGodMyThighs do you know the name of the business which the cider is purportedly made? If it had a web page it would be easy to find out if actual cider was made or not.

I thought they were making the cider for an established business?