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

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?

Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5370609-thread-4-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

Good point. Another inconsistency to RW's statement. Maybe they had a huge fall out over this joint venture hence the nephew's reaction on LI. The brother already had a huge amount on his plate restoring the chateau so one wonders if there was some disagreement over the project at Village du Dropt.

Will need to look back, but isn't there a construction theme in Martyn Walker's book? Of course, it's too easy to read too much into things.

From the article about the house in France, 'Moth’s brother, an author who lives in a chateau in the south of France,'...

So... they had some connections/knowledge of the publishing world...

And yet...

Morley, a chef who works in the town of Eymet and said he had never read The Salt Path and did not plan on doing so, said that interest in his neighbours preceded the Observer investigation. “Every year, the mayor comes round and asks me if the owners of the building have returned. Everyone’s been trying to find them because everyone wants to buy the house,” Morley said.

But Sally says it's worthless and not worth trying to sell...

Thanks for sharing this, so many interesting points (and still listening).

I thought this segment striking, both the self-revealation of a concept of 'levels of honesty', and the way Moth is absent from almost all the medical description.

I agree and was thinking this today too. They obviously didn't want to pursue the honest and painful option of exposing their flaws. What could have been. I do wonder, though, if we'll see a book written by RW called "The Real Salt Path" that tells the warts and all story, including this epic fall from grace and aftermath.

And I doubt her mother's wedding outfit would fetch very much.

I wondered, actually, if this was another variation on the truth, and she actually sold her mum's wedding (or engagement) ring?

I think it’s interesting that the extended family seem to be unusually close in some ways - buying adjacent property, living in the same town, lending large sums of money, going into business together - was any of this mentioned in the books?

Not really but the 'extended family' is Tim's and the narrator of TSP is SW who was an only child and seems to have had a difficult relationship with her parents.....

I've just finished watching that analysis of Sally's statement.

I think it was excellent from someone who only had a cursory knowledge of what's happened.

If he'd investigated more, he'd have found the answers to some of his questions. I don't expect him to do that!

It was just refreshing to have it analysed objectively by an expert.

Interesting points:

1. Tim's lack of appearance in the narrative
2. The change from calling his illness CBD to CBS and the longwinded explanation
3. Her desire to hide things, and the levels of honesty she references
4. That she goes to great lengths to explain things, but never admits to anything

Her mother's wedding dress was a suit.

I'm not convinced, but yes it's hard to know. I think the point is that letter and others raise valid doubts. I guess we'll have to wait to see if they share the necessary evidence.

Although my article would have called on better sources than geese, donkeys and a Bernese Mountain Dog.

I would have had Marie Claude at the café, philosophically wiping down the zinc counter top and talking about the misunderstanding over, "Est-ce-que vous avez de l'eau chaude?"

"We thought that les anglais wanted hot water for to se laver toutes ses sous vêtements comme cullottes et slips très croustillant et pas dans le cadre de le bon hygiène...

...mais non, c'était pour une tasse se thé. Je n'ai rien compris."

Or Jean-Luc from l'épicerie: "La femme, j'ai adorais! Une accent comme de la Lady Di! J'ai proposé un fois un petit rendez-vous dans la pigeonniere, mais...je suis toujours un jeune homme à seulement quatre vingt dix huit ans!"

Or something like that.

I live in Corsica. It's the Yorkshire of the French or Italian speaking world. We just grunt, "Hé bé" at each other. Even that's too much bother when it's hot. Or too cold. We just say, "Eu."

Property investment gone wrong – maybe that's where they plucked that theme from.

Moth's brother is an author then... interesting!

Although my article would have called on better sources than geese, donkeys and a Bernese Mountain Dog.

What that article needs is pictures of the animals.

PressReader.com - Digital Newspaper & Magazine Subscriptions

Moth's brother is an author then... interesting!

One terrible-sounding self-published book with one 2-star review on amazon as far as we know. I think calling him an author is pushing it, but it's probably what they told the locals.

Is it too late for Christian, 71, to go after the debt of £100,000+ now the debtor has been found?

Well how would they know having basically seemingly abandoned it to the elements. They will no doubt know now. I wonder if they are online monitoring all this stuff or have elected to shut themslves from the world. If it was me I would get my agent to curate and give me daily updates but apart from that bury my head in the sand.

The recent Times article has it that the Mayor wants to help someone buy it.

“Every year, the mayor comes round and asks me if the owners of the building have returned. Everyone’s been trying to find them because everyone wants to buy the house,” Morley said.

Indeed! Actually while reading that piece about the French property, I forgot it had crossed my mind that the "Cooper" narrative could in fact be a creation based on a blend of two separate events and people...I.e. the bad investment with Cooper, described as Moth's childhood friend (aka Tim's brother) coupled with the loan Cooper (aka Tim's uncle) made.

If RW wrote the book simply as a present for Moth surely he would have raised an eyebrow at her account of how they got into financial difficulties and all the various ommissions 😂.

Seems insult to injury if they still owe Christian and the Welsh garages (the count of known garages owed money went up to 2 today) and have a possible source of funds even from their pre-book fame days!

This was talked about earlier in thread 5. He self published a book in 2012, funnily enough with vaguely similar themes as How Not to Dal Dir.

The only family member I remember being mentioned at all in TSP, other than their own YA children, was a brother of Moth’s whose house they stay in close to the beginning, before they start the walk, while he’s away on holiday, and whose address they have their mail forwarded to after they leave the farm.

No mention at all of parents on either side until TWS where RW’s mother dies, and there are lots of flashbacks to her youth. Her dead father is remembered in the context of farming and exterminating pests (while she’s all free and communing with trees and water voles), her mother mostly for her disapproval of Moth (lazy, can’t drive, will end up a ‘smelly old nan’, isn’t a farmer). Moth’s father gets one mention that I can remember, when he drives them to the station when they head off on a teenage wild camping trip to Scotland.