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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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.

Parkinson’s which CBD/S is in the family of - freezes facial features and makes a person look unemotional - people need to be careful here.

https://www.parkinson.org/understanding-parkinsons/movement-symptoms/facial-masking

Very strange - he went to London with SW (shown at Paddington Station on the day on her IS feed) for the One Show interview with Jeremy Isaacs but didn't appear on camera with SW.

Possibly a stretch to ask Meryl Streep to indulge us with a bit of time travel though

I think it's so he doesn't make up some shit that they can't tie in to the story. His lies are big and spontaneous. Her's are controlled and calculated.

Yes and inevitably with these situations greed takes over and there is another book, a spa block, a film or a bottle of gin with CTMs face on until it blows up in whichever grifters face and the court of public opinion turns.

And only then do the papers seem to get involved. We could all see that Hannah was grifting her socks off during the CTM walks, she blatantly broke lockdown rules to take him to Barbados and still the papers took the "aww ain't it lovely" line .

Many people read TSP and saw gaping holes in it, Ros Hemmings said she tried to talk to a newspaper years ago but nobody was interested and it still took years for The Observer to start digging. Possibly spurred on by all the film publicity?

The strange thing is both Hannah and Sally are white and middle class. But I'm sure that has nothing to do with it.

Fair point but there are some other clips of Moth where he appears 100% natural, smiles to camera etc.

Instagram

To give him the benefit of the doubt, assuming he has some form of neurological condition that can make his speech or facial muscles be unpredictable he may not feel comfortable giving interviews - particularly live ones

I think that Sally and Tim's middle class ness (meeting as students, buying a property with land and outbuildings, romanticised view of nature, love of literature and the arts, fancy outdoor gear and agas) helped them to appeal to a specific demographic, the guardian reading, radio 4 listening types, interested in memoirs and nature writing, who are more likely to go to book clubs and buy and gift their books (and empathise with them). I think these associations possibly, in some cases, caused them to be trusted and taken more seriously. If there were a couple on TV complaining about being homeless, or not getting the right benefits, and they seemed very poor/ uneducated/ working class, they would be more likely to be perceived as lazy and at fault.

I dont find Moth strange at all in his delivery. I think she is though, that kind of breathiness, and then in the last few seconds when Moth is talking she looks positively depressed/haunted

We've seen him smiling broadly in the years since.

Tiptoeing around him and his supposed illness is part of the reason they got away with it for so long.

Does anybody find it strange that, with the possible exception of Gigspanner, nobody seems to have jumped to their defence over the last week? There must be quite a few literary types in the south west who they have shared the stage with at literary festivals and know them, but I haven't seen anybody leaping to their defence.

What did GA mean I wonder by Ray being ‘guarded’ (?) She has a lot to say.

I wonder if GA picked up on the 'scripted' feel of what Ray/Sally says. Yes, she speaks a lot but, as a PP said, there are times when she uses exactly the same words and phrases to describe an incident.

I think her 'local' accent, soft and breathy voice and slight lisp help her. I think if she had a 'posh' accent and a clipped delivery she'd come across as much less convincing.

Ooh do share her reply

Like a pp I thought the smiling when SW was retelling the bailiffs/ hiding under the stairs story weirdly inappropriate. Voice cracking, wobbly lips and the odd tear would have been more natural I think.

I used to work in a job slightly related to debt recovery and the bailiffs were the thing that most people feared and that made the debt real. Many people who ignored letters and defaulted on repayment plans would ring in tears after the first bailiff visit and often clear debts on the spot. For most people it would be a traumatic experience and I think even if years later you were rich and secure and winning at life, you wouldn't laugh while reminiscing a bailiffs visit to repossess your house.

I think also that if someone is going to be playing you on screen they'd be like "tell me everything about yourself" because they want to get the performance right. When your hiding as many skeletons as Sally was then it's hard to be an open book.

'I think that Sally and Tim's middle class ness (meeting as students, buying a property with land and outbuildings, romanticised view of nature, love of literature and the arts, fancy outdoor gear and agas) helped them to appeal to a specific demographic, the guardian reading, radio 4 listening types, interested in memoirs and nature writing, who are more likely to go to book clubs and buy and gift their books (and empathise with them). I think these associations possibly, in some cases, caused them to be trusted and taken more seriously. ' Oh yes - 100%!! and she does have a lovely flowing writing style, even if it is all made up - which most books are!! Hook line and sinker - fingers in my ears - love it all!!

Yes it’s a very odd look between them at the end.

There is no mention whatsoever of any family members in TSP other than their student-aged children who live away, and Moth’s brother, whose house they stay in while he’s on holiday, before the walk, and whose address they have their post forwarded to. I think they also spend Christmas in the winter between the two stints on the path at his house. No mention of parents, certainly no suggestion any family live locally to their repossessed farm.

Raynor’s parents only get mentioned in TWS, when her father is dead and her mother is on her deathbed. Moth’s family get a single mention, when a teenage Raynor pretends she’s going on holiday with Moth’s whole family, properly chaperoned, rather than running off on a wild camping trip alone with him.

You can still use the muscles but it takes effort

If you're actually ill!

The man's a fraudster and pathological liar.

I think it's a bit of a stretch to suggest that he has nothing wrong with him at all.

I noticed that too.

I'm very interested to hear what the police psychologist says!

I find this similar to the Rick Stein episode. When RW retold the story of house loss etc, she's her usual breathless, animated self, much like how someone might read a book out loud. But Rick's face is a picture. He looks sympathetic but it also looks like he's thinking "why is she retelling this awful personal incident in such a jovial way?".

Friends.
Family.
Acquaintances.
Fellow authors.
Actors who played them.

The silence from them all is deafening.

Actually I think the oddest mention of family in TSP is when they phone their children to ask for a loan of £40 for the train to ‘Polly’s’ farm after the first part of the walk. Their daughter can only lend £20, so they call their son (who is described earlier on as ‘too chilled for his own good’) and he says yes to a loan, but also ‘But I think it’s a mistake. In my gut it feels like a mistake.’

It’s the end of a chapter, never explained and never mentioned again.

I mean, what exactly does he think is a mistake? Does he think they should stay on the path in a tent all winter, or does he think living in a half-converted outbuilding when they could be applying for emergency council accommodation is a mistake?

I was just thinking that I seem to remember SW saying about her name change that friends and family called her Sally/Ray interchangeably. And I thought, where ARE your friends? Not a single one has spoken up in her defence. It’s astonishing.