Thread 11: 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...
Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn
Thread One www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
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husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
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New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the four Observer items above before posting. There are currently 10 items on The Observer website The real Salt Path | The Observer

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 - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. We have done amazingly well together for ten very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in a healthy and civil fashion is very welcome.

No saltiness. Keep to the path.

Does stolen fudge taste better?

I did get a bottle of Fowey Valley and it was lovely.
I'd done an unsuccessful circuit of the off-licence in Fowey that the Haye Farm website says is a stockist (obviously long out of date info as they had none!) then picked the Fowey Valley instead.
My husband and I took it to the deserted local beach on the last evening and drank it by a campfire. No tents were pitched there, or carried over the head! And I did pay for the cider.

I thought they had a year to come up with the funds.

That sounds lovely. Have you ever thought of writing a memoir?

According to Chloe H from Feb 2012 yet the final courtroom drama in TSP dates from June/July 2013

i read that article as I didn’t know about the artist. The article has a photo of the embalmed naked body!!!

Hmm, maybe I should - after all, it worked for Salray! 😀

Her parents did farm on the Dunstall estate and her mother did later move to a cottage very nearby. The addresses are in public domain via electoral roll info (available on Ancestry etc).

There is a lot online about RW having 'grown up' in Melton Mowbray. This is a stretch at best - she does seem to originate from Melton but her parents were farming on the Dunstall estate near Burton on Trent by at least 1966, when she was only four. (There is public domain info available via newspaper archives - I found several photos of her parents and sister showing cattle at agricultural shows in the Dunstall area between 1966 and about 1983). So the childhood she describes in TSP appears to have been spent in Dunstall rather than in Melton Mowbray.

Robert Lenkiewicz was born in the UK in 1941. His Jewish parents fled from Germany to London in 1939.. His mother’s father was court painter to mad King Ludwig of Bavaria. His paintings tell a story in every sense of the word.

Unfortunately I have the audible version and therr are no acknowledgements on it. I tried looking at the kindle sample but since they are at the end, no joy there either 😒

They might have contractual obligations not to harm the film?

But if I were JI, out of respect for the Hemmings (let alone self-respect), I would retract the comment made on national TV that "you can't say it but ai can: you were ripped off!"

Here's the archive link to the Bookseller article that @Catwith69lives mentioned earlier: https://archive.ph/XN1RH

As @AldoGordo said, it reads rather as if they went along to the Obs event and are just regurgitating what CH said. Our own correspondents provided as much info tbh.

I would also really like to know more about the reason why they upped sticks to Wales. The story of the kid getting out on to the road just doesn't cut it for me. And I also find it interesting that no one has come forward to defend them, like Dave & Julie, or Polly. I'd also love to read an interview with the nephew who posted that they were pathological liers [sic] but suspect he's gone to ground somewhere.

Oh, and 'Middlemarch' is well worth the effort. It's my favourite classic novel. No spoilers for those who haven't yet read it, but the scene where two of the main protagonists declare their love FINALLY is gorgeous. Brilliant that 'but what can I do, Tertius' is in regular use by other posters 😂

Thanks for sending an archive link to the article @TonstantWeader! I thought it was interesting that Chloe H mentioned James Frey specifically and also that she said this: “And I do think it matters if people pay money for something they believe is true.” I think that’s a key reason why I feel angry about RW (apart from the fact she embezzled the Hemmings family).

@TonstantWeader thank you for the archive link!
I have attached an image of the paragraph I think is quite important, about the lack of diversity in publishing. I found it astounding that they swallowed the story so wholly, it so clearly didn't ring true to me. Same applies to Jack Monroe. I was a single mum at the same point as Jack and nothing she was saying made any sense

Publishing is full of Georgina and Henrietta types...

Snipcock and Tweed from PE....

How the Salt Path fiasco happened — insiders on the crisis in publishing

What is particularly alarming is PRH and RW's agent are complicit in their silence (and their glib excuses). It seems to me they are simply riding the storm to sell as many more books as possible. This is perhaps not surprising as no one would want to admit getting it so wrong and they are businesses first. But it's alarming nonetheless. If I were an author (v unlikely!), I would seriously consider boycotting PRH and the agent as I would not want my work associated with their clear lack of action. OK, they didn't know, but now they do and yet, no word besides RW told us it was true. It's on her. Meanwhile, RW is still centre stage on her agent's and PRH's websites as if nothing has happened!

Agree. I couldn't believe the legal case stuff and I was also chinny reckon-ing about a lot of other stuff too which didn't hang together, which is why I disliked the book/SW so much. The point about lack of diversity in the industry goes a long way to explaining why no one asked any further questions. Jack Monroe is an excellent comparator and think she was championed by the Guardian, which ironically is equally 'undiverse' IMO.

As @Fandango52 says, it's the fact that it was marketed as a totally honest story which has riled people (and the embezzlement, which is appalling). It reminds me of the Pinch of Nom recipe books, which are marketed as healthy recipes which will enable you to lose weight. The authors are very rarely pictured, mainly because it's pretty obvious from looking at both of them that their recipes haven't worked on them. There are also mutterings that they've 'lifted' others' ideas without crediting them, though I stress these are mutterings and not proof either way. But the combination of factors made me decide not to buy any more of the books, anyway.

So true.

Thanks for the link, Cat.

This bit stood out for me: “Although, as one editor tells me, “I’m sure publishers will be on high alert for six months and then get sloppy again.”

As did this bit: “Ironically the real-life story of the Walkers’s embezzlement and lies is far more compelling. I suspect Anderson is kicking herself that she didn’t hold out for the latest Patricia Highsmith-esque version.” But worry not, Gillian - the door of opportunity hasn’t closed yet! <tries and miserably fails to think of a TSP-themed pearl of wisdom to insert here>.

Their strategy of keeping schtum and letting the books fly off the shelves certainly seems to be working. Pretty grim.

@AldoGordo

You're absolutely right. They seem almost unaware of the scandal!

I expect PRH want the fourth book published, since so much work has gone into it (from their perspective). There could never be any in person publicity though.

As for her agent. Who knows what's going on. I wouldn't want to continue to represent her. But then I'd have my own percentages to think about. Which wouldn't be affected in the case of past books, but if the fourth does go ahead, I wouldn't want to lose my commission.

Discretion is the better part of valor.....

Oh god yes, the Guardian were obsessed with Jack Monroe! I understand why they liked her, but still. They had a similar reaction to the Walker/Winns. Funnily enough, Tattle Life was very suspicious about JM 😂 I really dislike TL, but Tattlers can be very perceptive and very diligent sleuths!

The Guardian are suckers for a middle class down on their luck rising from the ashes story and yes, Jack Monroe was another, with her uncannily similar habit of encountering people who would just be horrible to her in public, and luck in being given things for free. Some posters here don't like Tattle but their Jack Monroe threads are excellent and genuinely funny. The WalkerWinns would fit right in alongside.

BTW I bought my copy of TSP, and the copies of TWS and LL that are on their way, from second hand sellers to avoid putting more cash into the hands of the WalkerWinns or their publishers. I'm planning to continue my role as Sceptical First Time Reader with the later books now.

That’s a good idea to buy second hand copies - I might do the same for TWS and LL. I checked my copy of TSP and thankfully it’s second hand. I’m going to take my TSP copy back to the charity shop soon, so someone else can read it but donate the money to a good cause instead of a dodgy one 😉 circular economy, innit.

Just bought my copies of TWS and LL - looking forward to a stitch ‘n’ bitch-style virtual reading group with you all. Maybe our reading will uncover further inconsistencies?