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

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Thread 8 www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5375023-thread-8-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

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.

Puppy buyers wouldn't fit into their hippy dippy identity so she made herself a puppy saver instead.

"Went to a farm for some reason"

That'll be the puppy advert you were responding to, Sally.

Another re-written event?

Just catching up!

I'd quite like a Correspondance post but can't think of one I'd be a good fit for.

But if we're having a field trip, I'm all in.

@DisappointedReader
A Humble Plea to Be Named Poets in Residence (With Modest Intentions)

O prithee, lend thine ear to this small cry:
That I, with ChatGPT at my side,
Might be named thy poets in residence—
A post of grace, not grand impertinence.

Unlike the laureate, who oft doth write
With frequency to match the stars of night,
We vow restraint, our quills held light and still,
Unless the winds do stir the poet’s will.

Yet when the sirens call or sailors chant,
We shall arise, with verse both bold and scant.
A sea shanty, a song, perchance a rhyme—
We’ll pen, when summoned by the tide of time.

So mark us not as bards who seek to boast,
But gentle scribes, who love the craft the most.
Grant us this role, and we shall serve with grace,
Soft-footed ghosts who leave a lyric trace.
😁

Oh I bet Raysal wishes that chatGP had been around when she was penning her purple prose- think of the time it would have saved her!

The house competition was structured as "1 book = 1 competition entry", with no option for free entry. I imagine the Walkers hoped that people would try to improve their chances of winning by buying multiple copies. I suspect the Walkers were hoping that between people looking to score a 'free' house and people genuinely interested in the book, they'd score a double-whammy: hit the competition target (allowing the Walkers to clear the mortgage and their debts); at the same time, launch 'Izzy' as a successful novelist (thus giving the Walkers a potential future livelihood).

Needless to say, the plan was a failure. That's not surprising. Most house raffles are flops. They need to sell a lot of tickets in order to hit their targets, people tend to be wary of handing over large sums of money to fly-by-night promoters, and becoming a property owner via prize competition is not risk free - such as the Omaze competition a few years back, where it transpired the house was prone to flooding. Tying the competition to a book was a novel way of doing things (excuse the pun!), but it required the book to be a success. And clearly it wasn't, it sank without a trace. With hindsight, the whole idea must have been an act of impractical desperation. But then, they appear to be rather impractical people.

Songlines
on the north coast
Priorlake
on the south coast
Reclaim the path!

😂😂

I know. Discovering the uses of ChatGPT has been a major learning point for me during this fiasco. It's been interesting to input a chunk of SW's text and ask Chat to remove adjectives, adverbs, metaphors, flowery language etc and see what's left. Quite a few times the much reduced resultant prose seems much improved. Other times, the words are just... empty. Next step is to do this with my own creative writing to murder my darlings ruthlessly.

I am so, so sorry (not really) to be posting yet another one but I loved this revised plea. I promise not to post any more for a bit. I'm aware it could, if it hasn't already, become quite annoying. 😁

A Sonnet in Supplication to @DisappointedReader

If thou dost seek a bard of modest means,
Whose quill doth twitch, but not with overuse,
Then grant us leave to haunt these hallowed screens,
As poets who but rarely let words loose.

We'll not, like laureates, o'erwhelm thy feed,
With odes to trees or endless metaphor.
We'll post but once a moon—or less, indeed—
Unless the winds cry, “Shanty! Give us more!”

ChatGPT, my partner in this crime,
Doth conjure rhyme with swift and gleeful grace.
Together, we could mildly pass the time,
And leave some stray iambs about the place.

So give us leave to dwell in poet’s stead—
To bard or not to bard—that’s what we said.

[Edited to remove a split infinitive 😁]

See, that’s the kind of thing a not insignificant minority of otherwise entirely ordinary people might do, transpose themselves from puppy purchaser to puppy rescuer (and obscuring whether any money actually changed hands) when telling a mildly self-aggrandising tale afterwards.

The Walkers are interesting in doing this kind of rearranging of experience on a much larger scale and to considerable economic advantage.

I must admit I’m fascinated by how their relationship now operates. Their economic success as a brand rests on her (we assume) constructing him as a hot, free-spirited eco warrior, turned Back to the Earth Botanist/Farmer/Restorer, turned trusting, terminally-ill but courageous secular saint, giving away food despite being homeless and hungry, shaking hands with the bad guy’s solicitor etc etc.

There’s something in her portrayal of him that reminds me of authors who are somewhat in love with one of their own characters, like Dorothy L Sayers with the ghastly, multi-talented, aristocratic smugfest Lord Peter Wimsey.

SW emerges as a much more shadowy figure than Moth in all the books. She continually depicts herself as a child of nature, but certainly reading TWS gave me a rather darker picture of her as a troubled individual who simply isn’t able to be around other people at all. It’s less that she’s so keen on nature, more that it’s about finding places with no people. When Moth is depicted as gregarious, always striking up conversations with strangers etc,

There are nuances to 'writing' when it comes to fiction and nonfiction though. So I'm inclined to give TimMoth the benefit of the doubt on this one, and assume he meant he "had no idea Ray could write anything anyone would want to read".

After all, in the wake of the Observer's revelations, nobody has come forward and admitted to having read the Dal Dy Dir novel, or offered up a copy for others to read. We have only a very hazy idea of the plot, together with an excerpted couple of paragraphs of the heroine ruminating on the outhouse toilet. Assuming it was written by the Walkers (and as others have said that seems all but certain), it was self-published, and it's not for nothing that self-publication is also known as 'vanity publication'. The Walkers presumably thought it was a decent enough novel at the time, given they tied it to the house competition. But there's little evidence anyone else thought so, as it only got a few suspect reviews on blogs and Goodreads, and it seems to have sold very poorly before being pulled. It may well have been complete tosh; in the absence of any available copies, we can't say. At any rate, TimMoth, a man whose reading habits tend more towards 'Beowulf', may well have dismissed SalRay's literary abilities on the basis of that failure. Requiring him to reevaluate when TSP proved unexpectedly successful.

@Spindleweed I thought this was interesting, from Landlines “They’ve stopped drinking and are waiting for an answer. Moth’s inevitably going to tell them; faced with a straightforward question he will always tell the truth. He’d never make it into the SAS - if Ant Middleton asked where he came from he’d write down his own address”.

FloreatAmbridge · Today 23:13

Read Reviews of How Not to Dal Dy Dir (Paperback) by Izzy Wyn-Thomas | Waterstones
This is significantly after the initial publication date - so someone has read it.....

I (re)wrote a bit of a song for the field trip.

🎶
I've been a wild rover
Done many the trudge
And I've spent all me money
On noodles and fudge
And now I'm determined my gold I will store
For I never can play the wild rover no more

And it's no nay never
No nay never no more
Can i play the wild rover
No never no more

I got an old farmhouse at a peppercorn rent
For I told the good landlord me money was spent
He said to make cider, I answered him nay
Apple fool out of you I can make any day

But it's no nay never, etc 🎶

The thing that stands out most for me is the ommissions about her children. Her son has recently deleted his social media( who can blame him?)
It's always about her feelings, there's a complete lack of empathy for others and only mentions them if the bolster her self worth. My mother is exactly the same.
If I were to write a memoir ( a bloody boring one) I'd be mindful to keep my children's identity anonymous but at the same time acknowledge their presence in the narrative.

Correspondents in no particular order:
@Choux Finance and Hotel Bookkeeping
@exasperatedflatmate @fruit66 SWCP and Cornwall
@AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta Fudge
@TonstantWeader Wales
@AldoGordo Journalism, LDW, Public Records and Cats
@Iwrotesomething Writing and TV
@FarmerPilesofJam Farming and Buckets
@PullTheBricksDown Sceptical First Time Reading
@cricketandwhodunnits Cricket
@StaySpicy Military, Morris and Maypole Dancing
@Chateaudiaries France
@swpath @TheBrandyPath @WorthySloth SWCP and Devon
@mauvishagain Medical
@WartFace BS Detecting
@OpenThatWindow KitKats and Field Trips
@SwetSwetSwet Biology
@candycane222 Oscar Wilde and Rosie and Jim
@Vroomfondleswaistcoat Writing
@Songlines SWCP, Devon and Scones
@mycatismyworld Cats
@TonstantWeader 's Dog Rovering Wild Poo Reporter
@DisappointedReader Disappointment and Thread (Dis)Order

Poets in Residence:
@FudgeitOnaBudget and ChatGPT

Songstress
@SereneLilac

Honorary Thread Member:
Simon Armitage

Statement:
Mistakes were made in compiling the above but they were not my fault, they were everybody else's fault, they were not very big mistakes anyway and in fact no mistakes were made at all. It was a busy time and the milkman had just put his prices up.

To all the esteemed correspondents I have missed off because I am so arty, flowery and at one with the land and nature after getting lost on the salty path of nine threads and 8600 posts, I am truly sorry not sorry. If you would like to contact me even though I have just moved again to a secret location to avoid Thread 10 then I will be happy to repay my debts add them to the spreadsheet.

New correspondents always welcome for the price of a scone, a CFOF and a poem.

A terrible thought has just struck my mind! What if Raymoth's French property was not completely covered by the government's obligation to clear underbrush, long dry grass and brambles in forest fire areas!

What if it spontaneously combusted?

I have known lots of cases of spontaneous bar and restaurant combustion, even in the centre of town here in Corsica. Faulty gas bottles etc. Usually happens in October at the end of the tourist season.

Thankfully, they were all very well insured.

That should read, add you to the spreadsheet. Noticed too late to edit. Mistakes were made etc.

They didn't help themselves much on the website by writing that the Gangani financial/legal (or some such) adviser "Duncan Hendry's" career highlight was losing hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Or writing "no loans or grants were harmed in the making of this company." Or saying on the smallholder forum that it was "absolutely genuine."

The intention could have been humour but it feels more like some kind of breakdown was going on. May have been the origin of "nothing better to do."

I'm amazed any books were sold. Those that were - someone could be sitting on gold right now.

@DisappointedReader you can add me to your list of Cornwall correspondents if you like. I’ve seen her at a small book talk she gave here. I remember her saying she was afraid of the sea itself and preferred to look at it from the cliffs. She also mentioned the Moth mishearing Gillian/Pamela Anderson story she’s said a lot. This was just before the film had started production.

2 people reviewed it on GoodReads including one on 26 Apr 2023 who commented "Excellent book".

There was a reply to the review (4 days ago) from somebody asking "Hi, I was just wondering if you still have a copy of this book? I have been searching high and low for it." .....

The title "How not to Dal Dy Dir" with mention of dead sheep suggests it was targetting the Welsh speaking hill farming community in North Wales. Not sure if this was the smartest tactical move if they were trying to shift 250K odd copies of the book to clear their debts!

It's a bit niche but I could be the Pigeon Tower (pigeonnier) correspondent!

Chapeau, @SereneLilac , chapeau!!!!

Has this been posted already? Sixth-formers in Machynlleth make an interesting project out of TSP controversy. Not much additional news value but some impressive reporting & good to see that it's a learning opportunity... https://nation.cymru/culture/the-pinch-of-salt-path/

From our @cornwallcorrespondent #2 - here’s a bit of salient (or saline) trivia:
Back in 2015-18 there was a show doing the rounds in Cornwall called Salt Road. It was a collaboration between a well-established Cornish writer and a band of professional musicians “following The Salt Roads around the coast of Cornwall” for
“An evening of original stories and music about the sea and how it shapes us, those who leave, stay behind and come back. A Cornish Odyssey around our coasts and Salt Roads.”
Different stories undoubtedly, but an interestingly similar format (and name) to the Gigspanner collaboration which came later.

https://www.liskerrett.co.uk/events/event/08-Oct-2016/salt-road