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.

Sorry to have put you on the spot! These threads have been so fast-moving, and as you say, we’ve had SW’s statement too.

Thanks! Yes it's understandable that people are sensitive to attempts to derail from what has been a huge crime of deceit and I should have been more thoughtful and simply not have posted that without due diligence to the facts!

To be clear I do tend to pity people who bring self destruction upon themselves as a result of weakness/bad choices. I always say I would never like my skeletons to be on display for critique (not that my skeletons are of this magnitude!).

But that's as far as it goes. I myself suffer daily with a chronic illness and as has been said elsewhere on this thread, I have had an uphill battle with doctors to get my symptoms taken seriously and then have faced all the same stupid responses of 'why are you using the disabled priority queue/toilets?' 'You look like you're getting better' 'You 'sound' well today' 'Its about the mind and the willpower to exercise, keep telling yourself you can do it and you will' 'Start by doing just half an hour' 'Have you tried Yoga, Tai chi, swimming?' 'Vit D, NAC, Magnesium?' 'My cousins daughter-in-laws' aunt has xxx and runs 10K'

Plus my father had Motor Neurones (the most common, quickly progressing variant) and I remember him reading a really irresponsibly worded newspaper article about a revolutionary cure that had shown real promise of being able to extend the life of MN patients as well as improve symptoms.

My dad insisted I research it. He was desperate to see if there was a program he could join in tandem with the hospital. Wanted me to phone the MND nurse. My heart sank as I knew straight away that the article was about preliminary findings in testing the drug, and it would not be available for a decade at least, the hospital had no hand in it and he'd be long dead by then. Something the article did not explicitly state.

So I see first hand how harmful the narratives that the Walkers - callously it seems -profligated. The false hope to sufferers, the guilt, the rod it provided to hit sick people with.

I guess a part of me does indeed hope something somewhere is wrong with the details, because it's just so horrible what they have done otherwise!

Marking my place for the morning

No Observer article it seems?

Will go and buy the Observer paper version as soon as the newsagents open

I can't believe these threads are still.going - not that I'm still so invested!

It’s live.

observer.co.uk/news/national/article/moth-told-me-he-was-dying-when-a-doctor-had-said-his-brain-scan-was-normal

Thanks @DisappointedReader for the latest. Just up with the larks.,

So the dog that didn’t bark a second time.

The last major artilce was the Times on their French debacle. Perhaps it's the final sputter, and we’re done. Or maybe there’s deeper digging underway.
It could also be that the story simply fizzled out not enough traction to justify spending limited journalistic resources.Or perhaps legal pressure was applied: cease and desist letters, or something along those lines.

I’d say that with a strategic hiatus and a more measured, well-evidenced response in due course perhaps accompanied by some token recompense to those wronged they’re likely to get away with it.
Not, of course, in the eyes of a small, committed cohort of readers (including the sharp-eyed women here with their formidable forensic instincts), but in the wider public sphere, where there’s a strong appetite for this genre and her writing.
This time, it seems Scooby-Doo and the meddling kids might just not catch their villain. The world isn't fair but we knew that anyway as much as we might hope it was otherwise.

Oops may have spoke too soon - off for the read !

Not sure this changes much except that, unlike with the Mail, he has now spoken out. If the couple were indeed living on a peppercorn rent and chose to leave of their own accord, they come across as ungrateful tenants perhaps even grasping ingrates but that impression had already been fairly well established by earlier revelations.

They were already well-known when they accepted his seemingly generous offer, and it’s reasonable to think he might have expected some kind of support or contribution to the business in return and vice-versa. That said, the article is vague on the specifics of their arrangement or his business expectations. And of course, his wife’s cancer diagnosis would understandably have thrown everything off course.

But I’m left with a question after reading the article: is that it? Despite the tone of further exposé, there’s little here that materially shifts what we already knew. The story feels more like a reiteration than a revelation.

Here we go:

Moth told me he was dying ... when a doctor had said his ...

Moved by the plight of the Winns, Bill Cole rented his cider farm in Cornwall to them at a knockdown rent. But they left him feeling confused and betrayed

The story has now taken pole position of the Observer website with the headline "I Felt Gaslit".

i didn’t read the second book because I hated the first one. But how snide are those descriptions of a kind man who offered the Walkers accomodation? Hands of an office worker? Well yes - they can work hard too you know.
i don’t see much in this new article tbh, other than a further description of two characters who were manipulative and unpleasant. Which is how I read them in TSP

Another article op/ed;

www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/25308657.glee-downfall-salt-path-ugly-elitist/

And yet, The Salt Path scandal has broken at a time when it is becoming more and more difficult to tell what’s real and what isn’t. Every day, we watch people accepting at face value news items that are demonstrably false. Old riots being passed off as new ones. A clip that shows Donald Trump saying the US should have sent weapons to Russia instead of Ukraine. At the same time actual events defy belief. Is Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok really sending out tweets praising Hitler? Is that really the effigy of a migrant boat on the top of a bonfire in County Tyrone? Apparently so.

In the midst of all this, you’d think a best-seller about a middle-aged couple on a long walk would be very far down the public worry list. But perhaps for the most aggrieved it is something tangible to fix their worries on. Social media is an ephemeral, tricksy thing full of blind alleys and trap doors. But books? Books are old world. Books are solid. They come in two main categories: fiction and non-fiction, and you’re supposed to be able to tell the difference. The Salt Path breached that contract. It made the world even more precarious. Because, if you can’t trust books, what can you trust?

I think for sure some people feel betrayed, and some people are really struggling because perhaps they are close to somebody with a similar illness, but I think lots of people just like a really good gossip / scandal. I’m here for it!

There's also this - not new as such, but a helpful summary for those struggling to keep up https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/fact-and-fiction-raynor-winn-wont-talk-to-us-but-heres-what-she-said-about-our-story

The description of Moth depicting himself as dying is really shocking.
Combined with an entirely different narrative in the book as well.

Although it doesn't add anything we didn't already know (they are confidence tricksters) it's pretty damning nonetheless

As is the fact they were never involved in Cider making but appearing on Rick Steins programme banging on about it. It shows how taken in the media were (and how little due diligence was done)

Here's a new one, also in The Observer, on the publishing angle:

The Salt Path revelations should be no surprise to anyone...

In the Observer's Q&A this extract is pretty telling too

It sounds very unlikely that there was ever any "bad investment"

Bookmark

This is such an insightful comment:

Social media is an ephemeral, tricksy thing full of blind alleys and trap doors. But books? Books are old world. Books are solid. They come in two main categories: fiction and non-fiction, and you’re supposed to be able to tell the difference. The Salt Path breached that contract. It made the world even more precarious. Because, if you can’t trust books, what can you trust?

But in October 2021, Bill says, Moth surprised him with an announcement. “He put his head in his hands and he said : ‘We went to the hospital this week and I’ve been told not to plan beyond Christmas.’” Bill was horrified. “I just went : ‘Oh my God!’ and gave him a big hug.”

It looks as if this is perhaps the nub of what CH has been working around. Did Sally/Tim exaggerate his symptoms/prognosis? This matches what CH said in the Observer podcast about someone approaching her about things not adding up re the health claims.

Nb this only works if you click on the picture, otherwise the quote from the solicitor doesn't show

I just don’t get this. Why would he do that ? It doesn’t sound like they were trying to get money out of the cider farm owners. It sounds like they already had some time left on the tenancy.