Thread 8: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

Well, this has turned out to be slightly longer than the dozen or so replies I expected when I started the first thread!

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

2nd Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

3rd Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

4th Observer
‘I felt I was being gaslit’ – the landlord who helped Ray...

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husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

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Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the four Observer items above before posting.

To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with possible visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail.

We have done amazingly well together - in the main that is, not mentioning any names but you know who you are! - for seven threads so far. I can't be on the threads as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion ticking along in a healthy and civil fashion is very welcome.

No saltiness. Keep to the path. Thank you.

And that’s a reasonable position to take: in the absence of a court ruling, and given the Walkers’ long-standing value to Penguin, what real choice does the publisher have when their clients push back against the accusationsm except to take their denials at face value, unless or until substantial, documented evidence proves otherwise?

Final part:

When the book was published, Debbie Adams and the family got a bit of a shock.
“We had (as a family) put it all to bed and moved on, until I saw a copy of the book on my boss’ table.
I knew [the picture of] the woman on the back, but she was older. I just put the book down and thought nothing of it, until my sister said to me – have you seen that book – it’s around everywhere, she said….do you know who’s written it, do you?”
“And then it went click click I know that face, that’s who it is….
“And me and my sister, we weren’t angry, we were just…..wow, the audacity of it, and we had always thought that she had started her life and started her new life on a lie, and that churns inside you.”

The article then joins up pretty much with the English version from the point starting 'In her statement in July'

See what I mean, though?

This thread moves fast and I haven’t been able to read all of it but that BBC article is quite damming. I feel so sorry for the Hemmings, the stress of thinking your business may be going under. I am the daughter of small business owners and the worry was constant.

Also I have been watching the Tour de France today as it’s in my neck of the woods and this SP book saga reminds me of Lance Armstrong. Dh and I were such fans and I was so upset to learn that it had been a web of lies. I went straight outside and put his book in the recycling when it all came out. But I’m still cross about it 20 years later for the clean cyclists who didn’t get the recognition at the time.

@Redheadedstepchild yep I think unless they can provide proof or sue then they need to bring it to a conclusion - what they ‘possibly ‘ have done isn’t illegal but leaves a very sour taste and I would attempt to make some amends and move onwards and accept it’s game over

Yeap, regardless of whether Penguin (or possibly individuals) may be able to pursue a case against RW, her reputation is well and truly trashed

It's so very hard to tell. On a very much lesser extent, I have this problem with my mum. In old fashioned terms, she is a spendthrift.

I've lost count of the number of, "Come To Jesus" moments I've had over the years with her. Never works. I hope they get better and realise that in the words of Henry Hill in Goodfellas, "I have to live the rest of my life as a schmuk."

The real life Henry Hill reverted back to crime though...

This is a good point. I wonder if TSPs success and the effort of publicising it has pushed other deserving non-fiction authors into the background. Probably not a huge factor, but there's still a potential knock-on effect to the small fry trying to get a book deal.

Has anyone seen the film? Is it any good?

I'm visiting a friend in Bath and she's suggested we go to see it. Luckily, she knows someone at the cinema who will let us in free as I am loath to give the Winn Walkers any money even indirectly.

I think Lesley Manville would have made a better and more accurate Ray than the curvaceous and glammy Gillian Anderson, don't you think?

Yes, I suspect you're right.

Still hoping for the (full) musical version, though. Maybe Panto themed?

There has been plenty of solid and reliable evidence provided. However, the Walkers have made a significant amount of money for Pengiun so they will be cautious. It is also their own reputation at stake, so they aren't going to rush into publishing hasty statements - unlike SW did and by so doing unintentionally revealed she had indeed been lying in her books.

There's always a part in a panto where the dame (played by Simon Armitage?!) throws sweets into the audience. Dame Salty Path could throw fudge bars to us.

A one-star review from Rotten Tomatoes:

"Went to see this dire film after booking before the recent revelations, so with the knowledge of the lies and deceits recently in the news my viewing of it was somewhat altered. It is a very poorly made film, with a terrible screenplay and surprisingly poor acting. With the knowledge of hindsight, what mostly came across was that the whole thing seemed like a poor fiction, which, as it turns out, may well be close to the truth."

This is something Armitage would most definitely go for.

With extra glitter.

It's also revealing that the charity PSPA cut ties very publically, very quickly.

@Charlize43 a friend of mine went to see it with her walking group and thought it was good. This was about a week before the Observer article. Funnily enough we were talking about the book and I was telling her all the reasons I had found it odd and didn't particularly like either of them. Neither of us could believe it when the article dropped a week later but I felt somewhat vindicated in my dislike of TSP!

I so wish the laugh reaction was still with us. The panto is making me laugh.....and I don't even like panto 😂

The Hemmings were also interviewed by S4C tonight. Perhaps @TonstantWeader could tell us if there is anything extra here too?
https://x.com/NewyddionS4C

I tend to agree but is it really? If so, why? A whiff of bad publicity, perhaps, & they’re just erring on side of caution?

@TonstantWeader I so wish the laugh reaction was still with us. The panto is making me laugh.....and I don't even like panto 😂.

Oh yes you do!

😀

Exactly.

And this is why the publisher /the publishing industry need to stop shrugging their shoulders and saying "well they signed a contract saying it was honest" and actually engage their brains both when reviewing and editing books and when marketing them

Absolutely; that is extremely revealing.

I don't think so. I don't think they'd risk doing that to a genuine CBD patient.

They knew enough.

I suspect they asked SW and TW for evidence such as a letter stating the 2013 CBD diagnosis with terminal prognosis and / or the brain MRI reports showing what SW had claimed in TSP. When the Walkers couldn't provide any of those, it would have become clear they had been lying.

Charities do ask for evidence such as this. I know from personal experience when the charity Something to Look Forward To gave me and my family a week's holiday in East Anglia. They asked for dated evidence of diagnosis and treatment.

Thanks, @SereneLilac , really interesting! The clip has an interview with Debbie Adams (the daughter) which is pretty much word for word the Welsh BBC article I translated above. Ros Hemmings appears about 1 min33 into the clip, speaking English (she's very English compared to her 1st language Welsh daughter!), and talks about the 'gutwrenching' time they had (poor woman). There's then a rehash of SW's statements and that of Penguin. There's another speaker at about 3'27 who's a books editor and who's talking about the importance of being able to believe memoirs and why readers need to be able to depend on the veracity of what they're being told is true (in summary).

Thanks so much! I was wondering who Bethan was, that explains it.

@Charlize43 Yes! I think Lesley Manville would have been outstanding as SalRay.