Thread 9: 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 ...

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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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 visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as this will only encourage them back to the threads.

We have done amazingly well together - in the main that is, not mentioning any names but you know who you are! - for eight 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.

I thought it was a Rayburn? I suppose Aga better fits the curated image.

I am imagining Salray now, dressed as Little Bo Peep, looking for her lost sheep be it one, 3 or more.

Just out of curiosity, have you got a spreadsheet to remember everyone's official correspondent titles @DisappointedReader or just a very good memory?

Is it possible the publishing company & Izzy Wyn-Thomas have no link to Raymoth?

I’ve only recently read TSP and felt that the story was in the words which were left unspoken. It also gave a feeling of two terribly damaged people, Moth with his health problems but Ray showing some real anger and guilt. What a different outcome if she had only confessed that due to her own irresponsibility and deception, they had lost their home as a result. It may have been cathartic for her? She never seemed to feel responsible?
I really wanted to see the good in this couple but it was a struggle due to her hostility or negativity toward others (plus she buried the sheep on their own land which is forbidden especially in areas where there may be private water supplies). And pinched fudge.

I do wonder how they both feel now that the questions have surfaced? Money can bring certain comforts but is no use at all if there is illness or a unclear conscience.

It was more what he said rather than how he said it. Though I suppose his illness could affect what he chooses to say too.

Was from "the book", that most reliable of sources...

A few weeks earlier I’d owned my own home, my own business, a flock of sheep, a garden, land, an Aga, washing machines, a lawn mower; I had responsibilities, respect, pride …

...and a large amount of someone elses money

She wouldn't have had respect from others at that point if people had known she had stolen £64k from her employer. The only people who seem to have known at that point were Raymoth themselves, the Hemmings, the police, the relatives who loaned them the money to repay the Hemmings and the lawyers who arranged the NDA.

Pride is an interesting one. Pride in her life with her husband and children, the house, holiday let and French property? Pride in herself for stealing or for getting away with it to the extent she did, so that she avoided a conviction and possible prison sentence? Some people who commit theft and other crimes are proud of what they do, of getting away with it or getting off lightly. Too much pride to live within their means rather than steal money from her employer to support their lifestyle? Too much pride to accept council accommodation and benefits other than Tax Credits?

ETA the two quotes I'm referring to from pps. The quoted posts disappeared again. Is anyone else having this issue?

I think the timing of the Sad Sheep Death is highly likely to be one of the fictionalised elements of TSP.

But doesn't it fit well as a metaphor....convenient.

@User14March Is it possible the publishing company & Izzy Wyn-Thomas have no link to Raymoth?

In desperation, we briefly tried running a book-based house raffle like others had done, but quickly realised it was a mistake as it clearly wasn’t going to work. We cancelled it and refunded the few participants. R Winn's statement

Timothy Walker is listed on Companies House as Director of Gangani Publishing and Thomas Winn was Sally's father's name IIRC.

That surely speaks for itself & speaks of some dishonesty then that Moth had no idea Ray could write? Unless we think Moth wrote the earlier book.

I've watched the video and few times now. I noticed there were two cats,a tortoishell by the door and a ginger tabby asleep on the bed. I wonder what happened to them when they did a runner?
Also the barn conversion looks fabulous. That woul easily bring in a rental income of at least £800 a week in the high season and no less than £500 out of season. Why were they not getting many bookings? Seems bonkers to me as companies like Booking.com have been around for ages.
I also why they said they bought the cottage before they got married but their children were born in East Staffordshire.

I also why they said they bought the cottage before they got married but their children were born in East Staffordshire.

I believe the cottage they bought first was in the village she grew up in, in the Midlands.

I think the cottage they bought before they married was near Sally’s parents’ farm — she mentions it being ‘on the outskirts of the village’ and she was still living with her parents at this point. The children had been born by the time they move to Wales.

I don’t dispute he’s unwell & actually I think he comes across as extremely polished & fluent in all interviews I’ve seen. Not hesitant. The Sophie R one too, although on the spot. He’s also looks dapper, clean, ironed sharp & smart even when surprised which is just part of who he is I think.

We don’t know that it didn’t do well, though, do we?

Just not well enough to produce enough money to repay the loan.

Mistakes were made! I can remember some but others unfortunately got lost in the mists of nine threads and 8485 posts @AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta (on Fudge). Were you Finance and Hotel Bookkeeping too?

I was just thinking that I should try and do an update with what I remember and then other correspondents can add themselves on if they so wish.

If any of our resident geeks would like to do a spreadsheet, I'm always glad of the help...

On balance of probability- overwhelmingly no. They were selling the book to raise funds. On top of evidence previously mentioned (e.g Company director was TW, SW was a shareholder, themes and setting of the book) if Izzy was unconnected then they'd still owe her a percentage of royalties, thereby making their fundraising effort even more unlikely to work.

It does. It’s like the good guy in a film having the cares of the world on his shoulders but still running back into the burning building to save a kitten.

Though the remarks about how no one would take in an old ewe, because most farmers send sheep off for ‘dogfood and meatballs’ at the age of seven or eight was a very characteristic remark in the ‘everyone one else is doing things wrong apart from us’ vein.

I mean, if someone is farming to make a living, they’re not going to be able to keep an entire herd of ewes long past their lambing days until they die of old age. I bet Sally’s parents didn’t. It’s something you can do as a hobby farmer when your numbers are tiny.

I noticed there were two cats, a tortoiseshell by the door and a ginger tabby asleep on the bed. I wonder what happened to them when they did a runner?

Yes, good spot @mycatismyworld We have all missed that so far.

Will nobody think of the cats? I bet they could tell us a tail or two.

Doesn’t the sheep die in similar fashion in the Izzy Wyn-Thomas book. There are other parallells.

@DisappointedReader On pets, I felt a dog was missing from TSP, then one appears in next book? In the Sophie R interview they say their current dog isn’t up to a long walk.

No afraid not.

Fudge (which now also seems to encompass pooing in public 😳) is my only speciality.

We could sign our posts off with our titles. Although that may confuse new posters who might wonder why some posts have Fudge, Medic, SWCP, Simon Armitage at the bottom of them.

Fudge.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-secret-library-podcast/id1124306307?

secret library, writing the salt path, March 2019

Yes, like telling Bill Cole he had "a few months left to live" nearly four years ago and now to plan beyond Christmas (at that point was eight weeks away).

Quite rightly few things induce sympathy like someone's last Christmas. It's a grifters paradise too.