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

Crikey I needed that good laugh from your nan tonight! Thanks @ClearStory

What are you suggesting?

Here’s the journalist talking about how the story came to her and started to be unravelled. The initial contact hasn’t come forward yet or been named but it was someone who knew their legal names so she could get Land Registry documents related to the charge on the house and repossession.

Chloe’s description is vague enough that the informant could be anyone who knew them in Wales and knew enough about the midnight flit, repossession and debts. They might not even have known about the NDA’d embezzlement although I suspect gossip was rife at the time.
https://x.com/observeruk/status/1944005238815388099?s=61

The smelly old nan typo really amused me.

Oh wow!! I wondered if that would be the next story!
I expect there's an Abersoch story as well but that would be harder to dig up

But there is ample evidence that the husband’s illness is real (look at her website for letters from the NHS, which clearly mention a CBD diagnosis). So why on earth would anyone tip off a journalist over something which is a) none of their concern and b) actually true?

Given the evidence provided which does in fact prove the diagnosis, surely any reputable journalist and newspaper would do their own checks to make sure their claims are accurate before printing?

None of it makes any sense whatsoever. The article lost me when they mentioned the different names too - most authors will use pen names these days, so I don’t know why a journalist would supposedly take offence at that…

And the incident with the employer happened almost 18 years ago. That sounds like a very long time to bear a grudge, especially since she’s been paid back (according to the newspaper article). Wouldn’t one just move on?

I just find the timings of the article a little odd, especially since the book doesn’t make that much mention of the supposed bad business deal ( literally, it’s mentioned once right at the start - so why make such a fuss?)

I hope someone changes their username to SmellyOldNan 😁

Oooh. 👀👀. Hope you've got threads 6,7&8 cued up @DisappointedReader !

I'd also like to know how long is someone allowed to "bear a grudge" about having 65k stolen from them, even if it was paid back.

Evidently 18 years is unacceptable.

The film made a lot of difference. Many people won't have seen the book-related publicity, read the book or realised that Raynor and Moth Winn are Sally and Timothy Walker. Suddenly their faces were everywhere in the mainstream, like The One Show, on red carpets and posing alongside two major film stars. Many more people will have seen and recognised them at this point. It must also be very difficult to stomach seeing two people who you feel caused significant harm to you or others in the past now being feted and lauded, and being so brazen about it.

Yes, she really should have got over it by now, even though it destroyed her husband!

I think "forever" would be reasonable, particularly when it caused an enormous amount of stress in what turned out to be some of the final years of Mr Hemmings life.

It's weird that some posters seek to trivialise that isn't it.

Hurrah! As hoped for, the next installment

The Daily Mail will be fummin'.

I want to know why Sally lost the bookkeeping job at the hotel. Keep digging, The Observer!

Yeah, they really wanted to speak to him didn't they..

They shouldn't feel to bad, they got a few scoops with their really rather excellent recent piece.

A) you have misunderstood what those letters are saying. And more importantly none of those letters are evidence of a dramatic reversal which could be seen on scans, as claimed
B) being paid back is absolutely not the same as never having been stolen from in the first place. He suffered years of stress and a tremendous betrayal by someone who was in a position of trust. She must have made him feel foolish and ashamed and vulnerable as well as stressed. And then he died only a few years later.

@Pianogirl1994 there is a marked difference between:

1. a 2013 terminal diagnosis of CBD where Moth is told he will be dead in two years and
2. a 2015 indolent diagnosis.

The book claims they received 1 but the evidence provided is only of 2.

Yes, they'd got to the point where they couldn't meet the payroll but apparently they should be all zen about it. Maybe a few long country walks would have sorted them out.

Hehe yeah he'd clearly already spoken to CH by then!

The way she presented the losing of the house in the book to the actual facts was completely different! She claimed her book was true and she was the victim of a swindler when she was actually the swindler and reason the house was lost!

i’m always amazed how people will look the other way when their heroes are shown to be less than palatable

but hey, it happened 18 years ago so who cares! I didn’t realise there was a time limit to these things - given the book was only published 7 years ago - is 7 years ok?

But then, why not mention all this when the first book was published seven years ago? In this digital age, it would have been so easy for the wife to contact a paper to complain when the book came out. Or maybe when they announced a film was being made, or even when filming started.

If she was bitter about it all, then why wait seven years? I’m sorry but it does not make sense. If the book had just come out, then that would be one thing. The film is just a reproduction of the book, so no need to get “upset” about the misrepresentation.

Also, the alleged bad business deal literally makes up less than a paragraph out of the entire book. Most of it focuses on the walk they did. It seems ridiculous to make such a fuss over something which isn’t really a part of the story.

Maybe someone needs to re-examine their definition of “misrepresentation”? The book is basically just them sharing their experience of walking the path, with their own thoughts and how they felt. I’ve just finished the book and do not feel in the least bit lied to or that it was misrepresented. In fact, by the time I reached the end, I couldn’t even remember the whole reason they became homeless in the first place…

It did make me want to walk the path though!

I am clearly rubbish at monetising the stuff that happens to us! To be fair, until modern languages as a subject got destroyed, it was quite a good living, because nobody ever bought 1 of a school book - they always bought a class set. Them were't' days...

Yep. Obviously if some posters were fleeced out of a vast amount of money by someone they trusted and had to watch their husband suffer the consequences then they'd just shrug it off with the MN speciality tinkly laugh.