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?
Thread 2 Thread 2. To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
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husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
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Thread 8 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/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?
Thread 9 www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5376712-thread-9-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 10 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5378984-thread-10-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

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?

In fairness, I read LOADS of books but I use the library a lot and also have a kindle. I would love to have a house lined with books but apparently my 4 children and husband are also meant to be allowed space for their belongs.

I don't know if you saw what I shared yesterday. It is just, to me, the most perfect .... everything. But, do take a look at the reading room:
John Le Carré's spectacular clifftop home in Cornwall has come on to the market | Country Life

This is the key thing. She can probably still go on publishing, as not everyone will hear about - or believe - these problems with TSP, and some will buy it because of that. James Frey has published more books. She can still accrue royalties from the books and will have plenty already for a nice lifestyle. What will change is what people think of her and how willing she is to open herself up to public challenge or criticism. I think that other activities / income streams like teaching writing courses, appearing at festivals etc will be a problem unless the audience is carefully screened.

Like others, I’m nervous that this exposure could lead to more book sales that would benefit them.

I’m hoping though that people will start to see through the myth the Walkers have created about themselves and not buy the books.

The other thing I wondered is what happens if it’s fully proved that most of what the Walkers wrote is a lie. Can any legal correspondents advise (if we have one)? In theory, could the Walkers be taken to court for lying or misrepresentation and asked to pay back some of the money they’ve earned from the book sales and the film proceeds? I don’t know if this is even remotely feasible, but could it happen possibly?

@TheBrandyPath that reading room is the dream...

My initial reaction is that I don’t know who the future audience would be for RW’s talks, unless it’s people who have lots of questions about her work or a small but fierce band of loyal fans who either refuse to believe the Observer’s coverage or perhaps haven’t come across it at all.

But that’s not true, though. If readers felt that a reputable publishing house was guaranteeing the truth of a memoir published by them, they were under a misapprehension. As has been said often on these threads and elsewhere in the press, memoirs aren’t generally factchecked. The contract puts the legal responsibility on the writer for the accuracy of what they’ve written about. I think that part of the reason so many readers felt ‘duped’ was because TSP attracted non-readers, certainly people who didn’t usually read memoir. I’m not dismissing their sense of outage and disappointment for a moment, or minimising RW’s lies, self/exonerating omissions, probable massaging of diagnostic timelines etc, but some of the minor inconsistencies being registered on here now are the kind of thing I would expect in any memoir.

Who would risk booking her though? Would the major literary festivals still be interested? on the one hand, the controversy perhaps intensifies interest, but the embezzlement poses a real problem.

I think there’d be more of an audience for the people who’ve been screwed over by her!

I think that one spin-off (not for SW) might be that students doing an MA in publishing who are looking for ideas for the next academic year's dissertation could use the way that this story has evolved as the subject matter for their research.

Yeah I am not fussed by minor inconsistencies and I would put those at the author's door anyway

But the fundamentals, I absolutely feel a publisher has a duty to fact check. Partly to spare their own blushes, partly the avoid consequential harms.(Eg the pain and distress caused to the Hemmings family).

And medical claims, damn right they should take responsibility for checking these out

Do we know how much it is for sale for? Quite galling to think the Walkers now live somewhere like that albeit they are renting theirs. If your actions have made you notorious among certain circles it’s a good place to live in splendid isolation.

Yeah I agree. And if a potential future audience is mainly filled with people who’ve been affected by her actions or who dislike her because of what she’s done, that risks drawing attention away from the festival’s other events and is also obviously a big security risk.

£3 million, according to the linked article.

Sorry to disappoint you - it sold a couple of years ago.

I have guessed where they are - but I do not know - but she has shared pictures and, to me, it is nothing like the former John le Carre house.

On what grounds could they be taken to court, though, and by whom? PRH has made money from the book, so they have no ‘loss of earnings’ case. There were a couple of lawsuits started in the US by readers of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces, but as the publisher settled so quickly out of court (because cheaper), it’s not clear they could possibly have got anywhere, even in a very different legal system. If your legal case is that readers wouldn’t have bought TSP if it had been labelled as fiction rather than memoir, so it’s ’false advertising’ then you’d have to prove those readers only ever read memoir.

PRH might ask RW to repay the advance for OWH and cancel it.

I’m talking about the book side of things — I know nothing about film, and whether the production company might have a case.

@NoCowardSoul some of the minor inconsistencies being registered on here now are the kind of thing I would expect in any memoir.

Fair enough - and I would often agree. However, I would like it to be considered, that the frequency of the inaccuracies, the reporting of events and people, etc., challenge the whole point of the book. The author repeatedly says : we walked the whole 630 miles of the path.

@Choux "The problem will be if Moth doesn’t want to front it out in the village, deal with people disliking them because of her actions."

Maybe the villagers won't make them feel uncomfortable. Paula Vennells, who presided over the Post Office scandal, is living a good in a village without any overt hostility and seems to be accepted.

@AzureStaffy that should be 'a good life'.

The problem is people are never all good or all bad. Just because they have lied about some things it doesn't mean it's all lies. People are much more complex.

Why didn't they mention the library in the book? Or how Moth really struggled and his fears. So much compassion and feeling missing from the book. So much of Moth missing.
Pot noodles are not cheap or vegan 🤔

John le Carre's house is beautiful!

It was where Jane, who featured in Derek Tangye's books, lived, when it was a row of cottages. I'd love to live there!!

Proper space for my books, too!!!

It wasn't only noodles and fudge bars.If you read the notes in the margin of the extract below, at Lamorna Cove they have a " marvellous mackerel salad and gallons of tea on one of the hottest days on the trail"

@NoCowardSoul
PRH might ask RW to repay the advance for OWH and cancel it.

PRH have announced a publication date for OWH in October 2026, with pre-order options by Amazon, Waterstones etc. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/320471/on-winter-hill-by-winn-raynor/9780241484586

Also they are still pushing TSP as "A real-life story about triumph over adversity and the healing power of nature" in their "latest updates" section, so they haven't distanced themselves at all from the falsehoods peddled by one of their biggest cash cows. https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/135080/raynor-winn

Looks like their strategy is to just wait for the scandal to die down and continue with business as usual. And if a new promising tear-jerker with dubious medical miracle comes their way, they will probably buy that and sell it as 'unflinchingly honest' as well. Or if they don't, someone else will.

Thinking back to the Belle Gibson case (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Gibson), I wonder if there are any grounds for a consumer regulator taking the Walkers to court for false health claims made in their memoirs? This hinges on obtaining proof about Moth’s condition, (which may not be possible), and on obtaining proof that the Walkers completed their walks in TSP, TWS and LL.

As with the BG case, I also wonder if there are any grounds for taking PRH to court if it emerges they didn’t properly fact-check RW’s books (BG’s publisher, Penguin Australia, agreed to pay $30,000 to the Victorian Consumer Law Fund as a penalty for releasing her recipe book without fact checking).

@weneedthetruth
"Pot noodles are not cheap or vegan"
Wait, did Raymoth claim to be vegan?

What about the filmmakers?

I read that Walker would have signed a disclaimer there, too.

And they have lost all the promotion for the film by Walker and its two stars.

So that will have an effect on ticket sales, and potentially distribution.