Thread 6: 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?

Thread 5 Thread 5: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

NB Please be careful when it comes to naming or implicating people who aren't in the public eye or have no connection to the story, especially where details are unclear or still emerging i.e. DON'T DO IT.

Keep on the path. No saltiness. Thank you.

New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the three Observer articles before posting.

I want to send hugs to everyone on the thread who has an illness, or whose loved one has an illness. It's really really tough.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

I'm not defending the way publishers work - but I'm saying they would be highly unlikely to ask for proof of terminal illness. Other people have spoken on this thread about that being taboo. To ask your author would imply you didn't believe them, and you simply can't do that. If anything, the agent should be satisfying themselves about the general nature of the story before submitting it - assuming there was an agent here.

How are publishers meant to 'spend an hour checking out a diagnosis' without asking to see confidential medical records?

It's an extreme example, but I once worked on a book about a man who communicated extensively with a ghost from Tudor times through his laptop – non-fiction. There was no convincing way of getting 'proof'. You make a commercial decision to publish and if there are problems about veracity it is the author who is liable. If libel is involved, however, that's different. All publishers will get a libel read when necessary.

Where I do think publishers are at fault is, as the article by an ex-PRH employee said, in showing too much deference to bestselling authors. Once TSP had been a success, they certainly wouldn't have been asking SW any questions about the follow-ups, and they would blindly support their cash cow author, as they have done with their statement about her 'distress'.

I found her mother’s prolonged death moving & disturbing. It hits extra hard as she’s graphic here about losing Moth & all this ‘I was living through the same death as predicted for him’ slams home. ‘Death had become the ever-present shadow in the corner of our lives’. ‘On the Coast path I thought I’d found a way with coming to terms with knowing Moth would die’.

Actually it’s worse than that because it also shows contempt for the reader.

the writer is the important one and mustn’t be offended but it’s fine to treat the reader like an idiot

Sally's gt gt grandfather died in Wales, born elsewhere, and all family elsewhere, and that's the only family connection to Wales there seems to be.

@notwavingbutdrowning1
dis you end up publishing Tudor ghost man as non fiction?

Do you think Moth wrote it? Or at least heavily leaned over Raynor's shoulder?

It's all very well saying " this is how it is"

But the conversation we are trying to have is about how it should be

And I think as a bear minimum if you are going to sell a book that professes the curative powers of anything you should at least check out the fundamental building blocks of the story are true.

It's not enough to just shrug your shoulders.

Or rather, if the industry won't self-regulate itself in this way then it needs more regulation. Just as advertiser's can't make false health claims their adverts, publisher's of non-fiction, at least in the "health claims, " category should face some basic minimum standards

How are publishers meant to 'spend an hour checking out a diagnosis' without asking to see confidential medical records?

They ask for them. Like every other body who doesn't just take a person's word for an illness before providing them with something, whether that's a respite holiday or a book deal.

People are asked all the time to provide proof of things.

It's ludicrous to talk about the trust between a publisher and a random person who's written a book about a terminal illness. As if it's somehow special and sacred and not bound by the same common sense everything else is.

And it just comes across as a publisher having no idea of the veracity of anything they publish, which then results in the reader becoming cynical.

It's not treating the reader like an idiot if it's true though. As the vast majority of books are. It's easy with hindsight to say PRH should have known, but why should they? Why would anyone lie about walking the SWCP and being homeless and humiliated? It's simply not the kind of story you would expect to have to check out. Fraudulent authors are pretty rare and, as I said before, they are liable, not the publisher.

Where I do think publishers are negligent is in allowing authors to make health claims - the Belle Gibson case is extremely shocking in that respect.

On Your Farm BBC Sounds 13th Sept 2020
'Salt Path Farm' episode of Raynor and Moth talking about working at Haye cider farm is worth a listen.

Oh but there was a note in the front cover saying no medical advice can be taken from the book 🙄

I agree with others who have said that the charity they were associated with, the one relevant to Moth's illness, dropping them like a hot coal at a very early stage in all this speaks volumes.

I too want to hear more about the Tudor ghost man.

With regard to publishers not wanting to upset an author, it is similar in the television and music industries. It is part of the reason TV presenters and highly successful musicians get away with so much for so long. Protect the talent - and the income stream - at all costs.

@notwavingbutdrowning1

but they are making health claims - that walking made him considerably better and cleared up a brain scan. In a non fiction book

I agree.

In fact, I would add that that charity were too trusting and naive to have ever included Moth on their website. Clearly, they weren't as thorough as they should have been: they failed to check there was any medical evidence of what the Walkers were claiming. It's very sad they were mislead, but I don't think they will be so trusting without evidence ever again.

Yes, I agree. That definitely should have been picked up by the publisher.

Flowers 💐🌺 for both @Uricon2 and @PandoraSocks

It was published as non-fiction! It was weirdly convincing - maybe I'm just very credulous.

Here's a much later edition of it. www.amazon.co.uk/Vertical-Plane-Mystery-Dodleston-Messages/dp/0955983150

Ace. I guess in a similar vein I can pop some grass in a jar and label it " reverses cancer" provided there is also a sticker on it somewhere that says "please do not take medical advice from this jar"

The early exit does indeed speak volumes and I thought so at the time. Amazing to have the courage to do that.

There's plenty of times people have to give medical proof, for example for PIP they need proof and if not given may contact your GP to get it

And then things like the leisure centre and cinema do a disabled pass and you need to provide medical details and / or PIP details for that.

i do feel that she is taking the flack ( and so she should) but that he is very possibly the driver of it too and most certainly should be blamed just as much ‘if’ it’s all a load of tosh - I think she is clearly in thrall and always has been

Especially after they did quite a bit of fundraising, and are supposed to support families with CBD, they must not believe Moth needs the level of support that some of their people do.