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.

This lept out at me - is this true and if so why haven't legal actons been instigated and why have the Observer seemingly not asked for evidence whilst respecting his anomymity before publishing that very damning "fact" ?

One of the men who inherited the Walkers’ debt from Cooper believes the couple still owe him the original loan plus interest, together totalling more than £400,000. The man, who has asked to remain anonymous, said in response to Winn’s statement: “Changing your name and disappearing into the wilds is not keeping all communication channels open.”

Agree.

And when I read a memoir I am not expecting or assuming each conversation to be accurate to the word. And I am fully able to appreciate that it is only that person's subjective viewpoint and that things could have been muddled and juggled by time. And I fully accept some details might be left out to protect someone or me because they arent relevant

But you expect the fundamental facts to the true. And you expect there not to be fabrication and fantasy within the pages

That's just basic maths though.
And we know they disappeared into the wild and changed their names.

And as for legal action @sualipa - they only just found out about the Walkers this week, so there's nothing to say they won't be taking legal action I guess

@lifeisgoodrightnow does it suggest Moth has a personality drawn to drama and getting sympathy? Some people can’t resist the opportunity to have attention focused on them.

Very good point.

Bookmarking

Gosh.

So BC offers the Winn/Walkers a tenancy at a peppercorn rent, to the detriment of the farm business (orchards untended, cider not being produced, experienced farm-working tenants would have been a more sensible choice). In return, BC gets a snide description in the books, and the impression given in a TV segment that it is the Winn/Walkers who produce the cider. They tell BC that doctors have given Tim/Moth weeks to live, at a time when the third book later details another walk then clear scan, but they don't tell BC about the miraculous reversal. Then they move on from the farm unexpectedly when BC starts to question the discrepancies.

They certainly have a pattern of doing a flit when they sense the jig is up!

Wonder if BC, or perhaps his friend mentioned in the article, is the source of the original health-related tip off to the Observer?

The Observer article disappoints me, its a move away from the investigative bite we saw in last week's.

What gobsmacks me about this couple is the sheer gall of it. The book was published while they were living there... They filmed their "cider making" episode there while living there...
I would be a mess of nerves knowing I was deceiving Bill like that. I cant believe they kind of merrily/unflinchingly got on with it

Anything properly investigative is going to take a lot longer than a week though
This feels like a placeholder

I think this paragraph from the Times article linked on the previous thread got missed. It's a French neighbour talking about to their visit to the French property in 2007. It looks like even back then Sally/Raynor was spinning tales about Moth's health.

The story, as told by the villagers, is that the Walker brothers were planning to develop the properties but poor construction work by the builders they hired quickly put them off and they abandoned the project. Jean-Paul Ade, 64, who lives opposite Benezech, remembers them staying in caravans for a short time on the site while they were first working on the property, but said the Walkers had not been back since.
Moth’s brother has visited a few times to conduct “maintenance” on the pigeonnier, Ade said, most recently a decade ago.
Ade has met the brother several times throughout the years. Ade’s children practised English with his children. “Through his wife, I heard that the English brother [Moth] had incurable cancer,” Ade said. “They were friendly. I thought about buying the pigeonnaire with the idea of potentially renovating it into a guesthouse but I didn’t.”

archive.ph/AmeUg

Perhaps RayMoth felt pressure to be doing more on the cider business side and this was a way to get sympathy and remove the burden? Sounds like they wanted the house and lifestyle but without the graft. When I watched the Rick Stein episode, I couldn't help thinking that it was all a charade collecting apples and pressing them, as if it was something they rarely do. From what Bill said, that turned out to be the case.

They have not published a "fact", they have published what someone believes to be the case. That is clearly stated.

This investigation has apparently been ongoing since March, so I would have expected some form of framing for example, a line such as “The Observer has seen documents confirming…” rather than relying on what amounts to casually inserted hearsay, especially in the case of such a damning statement.

They've seen the debt documents from Land Registry

And the money owned is just a calculation of the interest since that time

@AldoGordo I think this is my reading of the pitch for sympathy. It has become apparent they were doing nothing in terms of cider making so decided to pull the sympathy card.
I didn’t see the Rick Stein programme. But Lordy, did they pull the wool over the eyes of another willing dupe?

Yes that's how I see it too. They were barely doing anything on the farm and therefore had to come up with a dramatic reason why

Thanks for that. I guess we need a contract as well to complete the jigsaw is there any evidence of that ?

Yes, I noticed that and did begin to wonder if the story they told relatives didn't match what was in TSP, causing a rift and why the nephew has the views he does about them being pathological liars. Conjecture of course.

I assumed that might have just been a "lost in translation" thing
But given their skills of fabrication to serve an end,. who knows

Despite his credentials as a savvy senior investment banker turned absent gentleman‑farmer, he seems to have offered them refuge without basic due diligence or a clear sense of what he expected in return an intriguing lapse, considering he’s hardly a vulnerable pensioner being duped by con‑artists.

The contract (aka the document creating the loan) was the document the journalist found at Land Registry. If you listen to the Observer podcast linked on a previous thread she talks about how this was one of the first key things she found in her investigation.

@sualipa the power of literary celebrity and charm hey

While I don't disagree that he showed a frustrating degree of naivety for someone who lives in the business world
-.it says his wife had cancer at that time so his mind may have been on other things

• he had just read their book,.published by a major publishing house,.he (like many) probably didn't realise how little due diligence they do

From a journalistic/newspaper handling POV, the Obs has handled that poorly. You don’t blow all your top material in one go. You make it at least a two week ‘serialisation’ by buying up your interviewees and holding back some of your info for a second bite. Odd.