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

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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.

@WiddlinDiddlin I was thinking exactly the same this afternoon! If a female had complained to the Dr about the same symtpoms Moth had, she would have been told it was fibro / menopause / peri-menopause / depression / anxiety / stress / Ehlers Danlos / ME / CFE the usual things women are told.

The eye thing he was diagnosed with - a female patient would likely have been told it was ADHD.

Oh, sounds interesting, @User14March!

Apologies if I appear to be derailing this thread with Tudor ghost man - definitely not my intention!

Ditto unheeded don’t withdraw from the Pregabalin advice & ‘medication might take away the nerve pain but I prefer the un-slow him’.

Yep!

I saw something about this on the Penguin website,

https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/raynor-winn-interview-salt-path-wild-silence-author

Remember that entire sequence of events is most likely entirely fictitious though

Law clerk Sally was originally from Gwynedd
Is she, aye? FFS

There's a rich seam to explore in Sally's pre-Hemmings work history.

Or probably functional neurological disorder (FND)

He’s pretty good looking in that photo!

I prefer the Jason version

He's wearing a bizarre outfit though, a bit Hitlerjugend.

100% agree

I was very surprised that Moth got to see so many neurologists and got several MRIs and other tests.

I presented to my GP with many of Moth's symptoms (plus others like involuntary movements, brain zaps, extensive paresthesias, vertigo and all-night myoclonus) and I just got offered antidepressants.

Like you I have trapped nerves and spine problems. But I am a middle aged woman with a history of anxiety so as far as the NHS is concerned all I needed was antidepressants. None of these expensive tests, follow ups and actually trying to find out what's wrong.

Is it? Just looks quite ‘trendy 80s’ to me! What makes you think it’s got a Hitler Youth vibe? I thought their style was more military uniform-type stuff?

The colours in the outfit, the long socks and the shorts I think. It looks really weird. I don't think he was deliberately trying to look like Hitler Youth though. I'm a bit too young to remember a trendy 80s look😂

@KeepTalkingBeth I doubt Moth had anywhere near the number of brain MRIs it's made out to have been in the books. The NHS documents they provided only reference ONE (and that showed no abnormalities).

The TSP is (according to what she has told numerous sources) her narrative - her account of the walk for Moth as his memory fades. I am sure he is to some large degree complicit, but I get the sense that she is the driving force.

What I find interesting is her account ( on the literary podcast) of how she came to write TSP. The book was based on notes jotted in the margins of Paddy Dillon's guide to the SWCP. An A5 notenook she had originally considered taking on the walk, was discarded as being surplus to requirements and adding unnecessarily to the backpack weights.

So TSP was written in 2015-6 largely from memory some 2-3 years after the walk was completed.I think this explains a lot of what is in TSP which is essentially a largely fictionalised narrative of what happened. I also believe that the CBD/CBS diagnosis from 2015 was retrofitted into the narrative for dramatic effect.

Yes, hence it being a rhetorical question.

I absolutely appreciate the reluctance to speculate about Moth’s illness. I think it’s right not to, regardless of what material has been put into the public domain.. I haven’t.

But I think it may also, understandably, suggest a similar reluctance for publisher due diligence to include intrusive questions about a third party’s terminal diagnosis. I mean, would you feel comfortable asking your new author to provide proof her husband is dying? (Another rhetorical question.)

IMO It’s a new Romantic/preppy/dandy style almost a bit public school. Not very ‘Greenham common’ or unkempt which was his thing. I think Ray has always felt a bit of a power imbalance re: him being objectively very good looking. She’s more homespun in the photo.,She’s the shy, timid soul who’d apparently hide etc. I’d argue anyone that can do as she’s done isn’t timid. The Gigspanner recitals etc. Was she stealing for him? Ironically it’s Moth hiding. In plain sight in the audience literally…

So am I haha! But I’ve seen photos of bands like Squeeze and Ultravox, and feel like it sort of matches that more than the Hitler Youth, personally.

Interesting. I had assumed several tests from SW's account (the miraculously clear MRI following the MRI showing deterioration). I hadn't realised the letters they've made public only provide evidence of one.

There is so much more to unravel here

Yeah that’s my impression of the outfit too

God yes, if this was a woman then after years of trips to the GP she'd be told it was FND and offered some counselling

There letter goes on about the previous scans being fine and going to request another though..

Re: scans etc, I noticed this post on another thread, thought it was interesting

Having thoroughly reviewed many medical records in complex cases for my previous career; I agree the letters disclosed do not support Winn’s version of events.
The first letter dated 2015 is damning. It suggests it is a first diagnosis, the scans have all been normal, and says the symptoms presented do not really fit anything, but CBD is nearest. It is 2 years after Winn claims they got the diagnosis in 2013. It is well after they walked. It is when she is writing the book.
Consultants have a code for “this is very fishy”. The neurologist only observed two symptoms, an abnormal gait, but no loss of muscle strength or abnormal neurology to explain that (eg not caused by anything physiological), and weaving eye movements. Nothing that cannot be fabricated.
I enjoyed the book as a work of fiction, but never believed the legal or medical stuff. Moth appears to be almost coercively controlled by Ray. Many “extraordinarily happy” marraiges in public, involve one partner sacraficing themselves entirely?

“I could write myself on to the Coast Path and in doing so put Moth right there next to me, so when he read it he wouldn’t just hear the wind, he’d feel it.”

Why doesn't she say "I could write about my/our time on the Coast Path" rather than "I could write myself on to..."

Very odd way of phrasing it.