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.

Well, The Wild Silence says they spent every weekend in the early years of their relationship climbing in the Peak District, and wild camping in the Scottish Highlands, including some quite hardcore stuff like nearly dying in a storm on the side of a mountain when their tent is blown away and they have to climb into a survival bag. So, although RW represents this as something they stopped doing once they had children, if you were going to be undramatic and matter of fact about it, you could probably recast the whole TSP as 'When we had some unexpected free time, we decided to get out our old camping equipment and go back to a low-cost hobby we used to do when we were younger.'

I know the book says it, but what can we believe in the book? The book, in my opinion, equally shows they don't have much clue about wild camping or long-distance walking, having done it myself for years. They don't convince me they have much experience at all. Even if they did do things years before kids, it still seems odd to make the decision to walk when they've not done it for so long.

Not only is nobody jumping to their defence, but nobody seems to have seen or met them on that walk either AFAIK?

Using Ray and Moth interchangeably I can just about buy, at a real stretch.

I have a sibling we call both a nickname (unconnected really to their actual name) and their actual name, fairly interchangeably. (Although they would never use that name in formal legal paperwork like charity commission/companies house filings....)

But Tim Walker also being known as "Moth Winn" takes a lot more explaining. That's a total name change not a nickname.

I'm guessing no one wants to become a target given the still many answered questions. If someone were to attempt to corroborate their story, it would be not much better than RayMoth defending themselves, so would most likely invite unwanted attention. I'm not sure I'd come forward in this situation when all I'd be able to do was say something like "they are real, genuine people." I'd just be accused of being duped by them.

Surely if they wild camped in the past they would know they need to bury their poo at least?

I wonder whether it’s very much a love story between them and completely joint enterprise, or if one of them is pulling the strings- and honestly (and yes, I’m biased by experience) the descriptions shared on these threads of Moth as charming, charismatic, extravagant, etc make me think he is more likely to be the puppet master. The bit in TSP with the nubile massage ladies and her reaction (“I don’t blame you”) where it sounds as if he’s either played away before, or she has always expected him to, also supports this. He looks in that BBC clip like someone who’s keeping his own hands clean, speaking only about subjective opinion, avoiding objective statements. Nothing to be pinned on him, it’s her reciting the lines.

I also wonder about covert narcissism which means he has to look good to the world- she is the one who takes the risks: embezzlement, lies- and he enjoys the rewards (slate floors, powder-blue Rayburns, wholesome family man image). she could be desperate to keep him, and their dynamic is that she has to work for that because he could move on to another woman at any moment he chose. Now, it’s on her to keep his illness at bay. Maybe he can use that with her too, he needs to be doing specific things in specific places or he gets iller and more infirm, so he can pick and choose what he takes part in. I can imagine him effectively avoiding all tasks and duties that he doesn’t like, a bit like Disney dads who show up to dazzle kids and onlookers with their parenting skills, but never do a bathtime or the day-in, day-out work of routines and lunchboxes and organising.

Massive speculation on my part here, of course, but that’s the impression I’m getting.

Yes it has, and French, Portuguese, Italian, Polish and more.

@Lunde ha ha - look at Liz Truss, started off Lib Dem, then a Tory, clearly now aligns with Farage type mentality . Just an opportunistic weirdo who gets a buzz from being relevant and a big cheese

I'm thinking about the chicken shop episode now.

No broken ankle, no alarm going off, no landline phone in the shop, no means of climbing back out through the hole, no bread in the freezer, no way of just unlocking the front door to escape, no passer-by in 3 days who recognises her real distress??

So many questions.

@LostSunglasses I think they have exactly the same story arc as Thelma and Louise, just a bit slower paced.

My sister and brother, unbeknownst to themselves, were in the same European city at the same time recently -- DB was at a music festival, and DS was just on a weekend break with friends. My sister posted a selfie of herself standing in front of a landmark on the family WhatsApp group, and my other sister said 'Is that DB in the background???' In a very odd coincidence, my brother was just walking past behind her when the photo was taken, and neither of them had seen one another!

Surely, statistically, the Winns must be in the background of someone's photos at one of the beauty spots or food stops along a fairly crowded LD path? Or, if we go along with the Simon Armitage gag, surely there must be loads of photos of Moth when people thought he was SA, especially when he read Beowulf to an appreciative crowd in St Ives?

(I confess that I would be highly amused if these accidental photos documented them only carrying little day packs and looking clean, well-dressed and well-fed, partly because I did spend the entire TSP inwardly shouting 'Invest in sunscreen!!!'

Ooh she's not somewhere in Cheshire is she?

@AlertCat I get that feeling too - I think it’s lot of codependency where she thinks she’s punched above her weight at some point - she will certainly be the fall guy because she has been ‘the voice and face’ but in my opinion both are equally to blame if a great deal of this is indeed based on hot air and omissions

If they have so much camping experience, I don’t understand why they pitch their tent on a beach in TSP film. Does this scene happen in the book too?

I think someone yesterday said it's available on U TV

But Tim Walker also being known as "Moth Winn" takes a lot more explaining. That's a total name change not a nickname.

Now others may know that he’s using this name in more formal ways, but as she is using Winn as her pen surname, couldn’t it just be that as most people don’t know the Walker name, they add Winn to his name because then it matches hers? People who know me sometimes call my dc Name MySurname instead of Name HerDadsSurname because it groups us together…

She could have hurled a frozen chicken at the window to get out

i’m sure it’s fiction but it’s just so stupid

but note that others are always mean spirited - projection much

Ugh, I've just read this - it's utter buttercups bollocks. "A chance to create another field of buttercups"; "so contrary to the life of the child in the buttercups"; "the same light of nature that shone in the buttercup field'..

As for the stuff about her daughter: "my daughter sat in her flat writing a life-plan on a whiteboard" - do people do this? Why not on a laptop? And how does she get out of the chicken shop?

I haven't read the books but this is a terrible piece of writing - maudlin, badly structured, with a trite conclusion. "It seems life has a way of working out, of putting things right and seeing us through the hard times." Seriously? In the middle of a pandemic? That feels like a highly privileged take to me.

And what were we saying about proofreaders? "But you have no outside space, how can you bare it?" "But who’s roof is it?" etc etc. I'd hope for better from Penguin, even (especially) on a blog piece.

And no fire exit in a building using deep fat fryers?

Yes. The book opens with them fleeing the incoming tide, Moth splashing through the waves in his pants, bearing the tent above his head.

Ooh, good point!

GA probably asked her a few searching questions, to research the character she'd be playing, that SW couldn't answer or gave evasive answers to.

In the This Morning interview, GA does not look comfortable or happy. She mentions she listened to TSP in the car when driving her children around, i.e. not giving it her full attention, but still being hooked by the tale.

GA is quite subdued in the interview, she doesn't have rapport with SW, mainly just looks unsmilingly at SW when she is talking.

The only time she gets enthused is when she talks about the injustice that SW experienced, but that belief and enthusiasm came across to me as very much GA reflecting back on her own response to the book, rather than in connection with getting to know SW (RW) and establishing a much fuller understanding of the 'traumatic yet healing experiences' – which you would have expected if you spent time with the person it happened to.

At one point GA says "we had to tell the story", not "we had to tell their story" or "we had to share their experience".

My interpretation of it is that by the time GA was on the This Morning sofa she may have heard some rumours (at that point Penguin, and presumably the film company, had been approached by CH and The Observer team), or was just suspicious at not being able to probe SW (RW) very far, and was doing her best to just give a truthful account of why she wanted the role, and keep promoting the film, something she'd have been contracted to do. A tricky combination, she looks tense and uncomfortable about it.

Of course this is all retrospective fine-toothcombing, but noticed GA slightly narrows her eyes looking at SW on the word "truth", after saying this is the last thing anyone would do but that's the truth of what they did. It's like she's doubting it. GA also brings her hand over her mouth to touch her upper lip on the word "accuracy" and fidgets a bit when SW is talking.

Weirdly, SW manages to bring in the theme of identity and name mix up on Pamela/Gillian, and I thought it was a tiny bit disrespectful too, as in oh Tim just thought of another actress – rather than him being impressed it would be GA.

The Salt Path film has just appeared on Amazon video, available to rent or buy. It features in the carousel at the top of the app. The trailer auto-played, and Cornwall looks as gorgeous as ever.

I do feel for the actors, as these sort of unglamorous gritty character roles are often awards contenders. GA's hair stylists deserve especial plaudits! This exposé must be a disheartening experience for everyone involved in making the film. Or maybe cast/crew already suspected something was not quite right?

(No idea if the film will be affected, but pps have variously suggested box office takings, awards, and international distribution rights might now be curtailed.)

@notwavingbutdrowning1 you can imagine someone like Denzil Washington or even Woody Allen intoning this in their own voices over the end of a film as the credits go up!!