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 just hope that the path she walked was sweet and not salty - unlike RayMoth’s! (Sorry…)

That's vaguely what I think. There seems to be a lot of 'not outright lies'.

The whole scenario gives me slight 'freemen on the land' movement vibes at times.

There was a fairly recent Guardian article about a FOTL trend being spread on SM where TikTok videos and the like tell people struggling with their mortgage that they can't be compelled to pay it, using arguments based on archaic laws, Magna Carta etc.

Apparently there has been a pattern of people showing up in court, representing themselves, arguing that it is illegal for their lenders to evict them from their homes, and that in fact their lenders owe them money, based on a complete misunderstanding of law. Ditto for council tax.

Slight vibes of 'we're too free-spirited to be pinned down by laws' and 'surely they'll agree a payment plan' and 'Isn't it different if we lovingly restored our ancient Welsh farmhouse and reclaimed the land to if we were just like the sheeple who live in 3-bed semis in towns and go to Ikea at the weekend and raise their kids to watch TV?'

Put me right if this has already been covered but I have come across people being told that Moth's real name is Ray. I can't remember where I first saw it - it was someone who had asked IzSalRay at a literary festival about the name Moth - but she had posted on a thread that "he's really called Ray". Also this: Wendy answers “Can anyone tell me about the name 'Moth'. ...” — The Wild Silence Q&A

Boom boom! 🤣🤣

Truth be told her path was mainly littered with G&T's and John Players! Sadly I'm not aware that she was ever a great taker of Fudge bars, unlike RayMoth who definitely were. Literally.

I’ve only seen a reference in this article - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/the-salt-path-book-journey-walking-coast-path-cornwall-devon-homelessness-a8502256.html - to Moth’s apparent real name being Ray.

Interesting. I agree about the "not outright lies" lies. It seems like most of them have origins in real life experiences but they've evolved and been twisted beyond recognition...much like Moth looking like Simon Armitage. Maybe the SA reference is the key to all of this. Sally's calling card.

Ok thanks - so that is 3 different sources for him being really called Ray. Clearly no one wanted to say Timothy back then.

A bit confusing if they are both called Ray is it not?

I've also written a collection of short stories (also unpublished) called 'Past Imperfect' ( somewhat like Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected) which might make a good surprise birthday present for SW and TW!

Part of the self written synopsis:

Hidden childhood secrets, unexpected encounters, dislocated relationships, fabricated identities. In prose that is crisp and fresh (!!), this collection of short stories explores the moral maze that lies beneath the veneer of middle class respectability

I think when they put their heads above the parapet again then they'll go down the not outright lies route and claim they didn't lie about things exactly, it just that nobody explicitly asked them until the Observer did. Borris Johnson used to use a similar tack and look how well that worked.

Lots of things are at least 'confusing'! Raynor Winn's statement says: We are accused of hiding behind pseudonyms. This is blatantly untrue. Like most, we use these nicknames alongside our legal names. The legal names we use on our bank records, our utility bills etc. Our friends and neighbours use Sal and Tim interchangeably with Ray and Moth - there is nothing hiding in our names.

Although when we just knew her a Raynor and him as Moth she said that he was really Ray.

@DisappointedReader will have to do us another spreadsheet to keep track of all the names. I think so far it goes:

Sally/Izzy/Ray

Timothy/Moth/Ray/Simon Armitage.

Simon Armitage.

And that Independent article is saying his nickname comes from 'his eco-activism in the 80s and 90s'. I'd be very interested to know what that actually involved.

If they put their heads above the parapet (which I doubt) I think they'll drone on about artistic license and memoirs often veering slightly from real events, capsules etc. But the thing is, fair enough as the above may be, the entire premise of tsp is fake, if the allegations are true..which is not excusable in any memoir.

I'm wondering whether, if Moths illness takes a turn for the worse or has taken one, whether SW might use that to illicit sympathy and divert from any misdeeds she might have undertaken and to silence the bad press.

I'm wondering whether, if Moths illness takes a turn for the worse or has taken one, whether SW might use that to illicit sympathy and divert from any misdeeds she might have undertaken and to silence the bad press.

I would think that's a given unfortunately.
Talking of Moth and his illness I listened again recently to Jason Isaacs Table Manners interview, he was asked if RayMoth have got a house now and replied along the lines that they can't because if Moth stays in one place for too long he'll forget everything again so he must be continually moving.

I'm not saying that's not true but it sounds mightily strange.

Is anyone able to read this article in Grazia Daily ‘I’m Reconsidering What The Salt Path Author Told Me’

I bought a multi pack of Cadbury fudge fingers today from a supermarket very close to the salt path. I paid for it (£1.40!) as I can get a code for 50% off sea life because my daughters want to go this week.

I ate one. Sure they used to be bigger and they are absolutely not worth 32.5p each 😭😭

would definitely not sustain on a long walk.

See, this is what I've been wondering. They've made a mint out of the books and film, so why haven't they bought a house somewhere? My Cornish spy confirms that they are indeed living near the village mentioned by a PP a few threads ago, and the house is allegedly owned by a third party. Is there some legal reason why they can't or won't buy? Or would home ownership stop the gravy train? I find it very strange, given the whole shtick is about the horror of homelessness.

I'm a tad disappointed that, after delurking, I find myself without any relevant skills to offer for a portfolio.

Except, perhaps, in mis-naming people, which is a little ironic given that name changes is one of the reasons we're all here!

On a separate note, with the reminder about Martyn's blog, it occurred to me that if SalRay had aspirations to be a writer, she must surely have had a blog back in the day. I've spent far too many hours trying different searches to track one down.

My top tip, without treading on The Fudge Correspondent's toes, is to buy them from discount stores like Home Bargains, B&M, The Range.

Still far too small, but slightly less pricey.

With the Tortoise media TSP focus event scheduled for the 29th July, hopefully we get a follow up piece from Chloe H this Sunday.

Perhaps it will focus on the veracity of TSP - events recounted in the first chapter which set the scene/agenda for the book as well as some attempt at verification of the incidents that occurred on their walk.

Insights from TW's French based sibling and nephew, views of Pwilheli residents whose paths crossed the Walkers and excerpts from 'How not to Dal dy Dir' would be an added bonus!

That sounds so bizarre!!

You can be Legacy Media Investigations correspondent. I think the blog idea is a good shout. Can see Ray being a WordPress or
Blogger or even Livejournal user. But it would take some luck as well as skill to find it.

Not treading on my toes at all as I heartily agree with you. Also one bar isn't enough so you really need a multi pack or three to gain any substance.

Signed,
TFC.

I'm not a medical expert, but what I can add is that this is exactly the opposite of what's advised for dementia (as another condition affecting the brain), which is that moving people to unfamiliar places or settings is likely to have an adverse effect on memory, because they're not able to rely on many years' worth of knowing which door is to the kitchen, when the milkman comes etc and they don't have the capacity to build up and cement new memories anymore. So in this respect, as well as various others, Moth seems to be very unusual, medically speaking.