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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Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5370609-thread-4-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
Thread 5 Thread 5: 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?
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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?

Agree @TheBrandyPath . Helford Village Stores stocks all sorts of lovely things for the second home owners. I imagine all sorts of other spots are similarly provisioned! Not a noodle in sight!

Wow. I stand corrected. That looks like an amazing route. I might do that myself one day. 😁

Thanks. Looks like an amazing route. One for my bucket list.

Ah okay, I missed that one. I still wonder if one replacement would be enough for all the cooking they do, with noodles twice a day and sometimes tea as well.

I’ve not read Landlines but I wonder what they did about food for walking Cape Wrath? That would require a lot of planning as there are few shops and cafes along the way and you’d basically need to carry everything and have stuff sent ahead as far as I understand. How did they manage? Surely not on pot noodles!

Last time I was there a man was discussing what he could buy instead - as they did not have arborio rice.
The one I was thinking of was Portscatho.

I had to get rid of most of my books, it was heartbreaking. You have to be unflinchingly honest about which ones you might read again!

I have a copy of LL on the way so will report on the prevalence of noodles in their diet!

My inner cynic feels that only eating plain noodles and rice fits RW’s narrative of being desperate, hungry and on her uppers.

RW presumably wants as many readers as possible to identify with her, so she goes on about only eating a filling cheap carb which is more ‘humble’ and basic-sounding than something like tinned fish. People tend to think of carb-fuelling after long walks rather than eating something with protein in it.

RW might also want to suggest her and Moth’s minds were so occupied with their house repossession/Moth’s diagnosis/their kids’ wellbeing that they just didn’t have the brain space to think about a varied diet and just went for the most recognisably cheap and convenient options that give you an easy and quick hot meal.

When it comes to the CBD diagnosis, I think it's useful to distinguish between legal responsibility and moral responsibility. Medical liability is always going to be a legally risky area for a publisher. So I feel confident that the PRH lawyers would have checked those aspects of the book and given the thumbs up. To be clear, not fact checked them, it seems pretty clear the publishing industry leaves fact checking to its authors, and doesn't have the resources or inclination to do its own.

Morally it's another matter. The books present an unambiguous message that Moth was healed of his illness, an illness the author repeated describes as imminently terminal, by walking. If anything she's doubled down over the years, the most recent one not only claims a dramatic improvement but claims it is supported by the objective evidence of MRI scans; scans RW has not released. And PRH has facilitated that. Unwittingly, I'm sure, but it brings me back to my earlier point. Its not enough that a publisher just do a legal read to shield them from legal liability. When it comes to the kind of extraordinary claims the Walkers made, publishers MUST be more inquisitive and sceptical; otherwise this will keep happening, people given false hope will continue to be devastated, and ultimately the good reputation of the publisher will suffer.

Did TW and SW tell their children about the original CBD diagnosis?

On p26 of TSP shortly after the supposed consultation and before they set off on the walk, SW writes

" I rang our daughter, Rowan, desperately excited, needing to share this tiny scrap of good news (The tent purchase on Ebay) wanting to alleviate the atmosphere that had settled between us over the last two weeks of endless gloom. Wanting to be Mum and make everything okay. I had to get back to being that mum,but as soon as the phone began to ring I was regretting it. They might have grown up and left, but the home we'd lost was theirs too. Moth was their dad and his illness was as hard for them to accept as it was for me."

For me this passage implies that (according to the narrative) they did tell their children about the 2013 CBD diagnosis. However, on p 190 as they lie in the tent near Falmouth SW writes:

"Have we abandoned them? We've talked about losing the house,but not really about you being ill and what it might mean. Every bump and scratch, every little heartache of their lives. But not this, not the biggest thing, not about what effect it could have on us all. It's as if it's too painful to even go there;the elephant in the room. None of us can say it."

Seems a bit of a contradiction in the story line to me.

Marie Kondo needs to go on a long walk..

The film (from what I remember) seems to suggest noodles you actually cooked on their stove, but I think I’d vaguely assumed they were of the ‘add a small amount of boiling water and allow to stand ’ variety for exactly that reason — less water needed. But their tea habit must have accounted for most of their stove usage.

I think he might have gone back for a second time sometime later in 2023.

On the Insta account he says 'again'.

Not necessarily a contradiction. I think the key phrase in the second excerpt is "not really", and then, "It's as if it's too painful to even go there;the elephant in the room. None of us can say it."

I think the implication here is that they've talked enough that the kids know the facts, but not properly, not honestly, about the emotions behind that.

However, both RW's own account and the 2015 letter she released suggest Moth had been unwell for years beforehand. By RW's account, experiencing serious symptoms. It's unlikely the kids were not aware he was ill, but it's possible they kept the diagnosis from the kids to reduce their worry.

(And of course this may be a largely fanciful account of what actually happened anyway)

Good point. Having done it myself, I know how few places there are to get provisions. Not read the book so it's hard for me determine how they managed it. The Suilven bit surprised me though as its a bit of a detour off the general route most people take. Someone mentioned Lochinver too, which is way off the cross country route.

Not really, as it goes on to Tim's dialogue that says he has talked to them.

On Insta they write in August 2024:
"Last year we were thrilled to welcome @chefrickstein back to Haye and we thoroughly enjoyed the subsequent programme (Cornwall series 3, episode 2)."
https://www.instagram.com/p/C_JOCoWogbQ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
So sounds like 2023 was his 2nd visit?
But then they should also be two RS episodes on Haye Farm, one with and one without the Walkers.

I think I've got it now. Landlines Hardback was published 15 Sep 2022. A few weeks later Rick Stein visits. Then shortly afterwards the Walkers leave.

Thanks all.

Fair point although if they had such a strong and solid relationship wouldn't they have discussed how and what to tell their children about such a serious diagnosis? Maybe it's not that important in the greater scheme of things!

it's possible they kept the diagnosis from the kids to reduce their worry.

With that in mind, why would RW then write a book about his illness and then say it’s terminal? I’m not disagreeing with you, but just mentioning this as it just doesn’t add up. If you’re trying to protect your family and friends from a horrible situation, why write a book about it where you go into detail? That makes no sense to me whatsoever. The more I think about the whole situation, the sadder I feel for their kids. I hope their kids are holding up okay.

That part of the book is quite odd and disjointed. They drive there and discover when almost at the trailhead that Cape Wrath is closed because of military training, so they start in Sheigra with the idea of walking to Fort William, but it’s quite bittily narrated.

We seem to leap from them leaving their van, to a shop somewhere near Rhiconich to talking about going to a hotel at Kylesku to approaching Lochinver where they hitch back to their van at Sheigra, then drive back to Lochinver where they stay in a B and B and their van is collected, then walk to a tearoom in Elphin, then get a taxi to a B and B in Ullapool where they stay stay for three nights to let Sally’s feet heal, then take a taxi back to a lay-by by the path, and walk three days to Kinlochlewe where there’s a shop and a campsite. Their stove breaks there but they order a new one online to be delivered to a hotel three days walk away, so load up with cold food (‘pies, Jaffa cakes and bananas’). So they have ample chances to buy food in shops or at their accommodation, for a while, and, possibly slightly weirdly, because they have money, and at one point post a lot of their stuff back to Cornwall because they can afford to replace it if needed, they have an easier time with money in remote parts of Scotland just coming out of lockdown than they appear to do on the SWCP with no money.

I think it's still a bit confusing.
RS Cornwall series 3 ep 2 featuring the Walkers airs February 2023, picture shows ripe apple trees in the background, so presumably shot 2022 before the fallout described by Bill Cole.
But then that same episode can't be the result of a 2nd visit in 2023 - unless he visited in January and the programme aired after the visit but had really nothing to do with it?

It's possible he returned with a crew to get some pick up shots that were deemed necessary during the edit. Or I suppose he could have just been passing by. Does he live near there?

Can't access that Youtube link, is it broken? If it's interesting, could you give the title and author?

Just listened to the Interrupted Lives podcast and added the info to the timeline.

Boy, were they busy!

c. 1988 - c. 1990/91: Sally works at a local court full time, then starts a part time law degree (in addition to working); she completes two years of the degree whilst having babies, working, and renovating their house

Late 80s/Early 90s: Tim is an eco activist

c. 1990/91 - 1994: Sally gives up both the degree and work, to look after the children and grow vegetables

Early 1990s: Tim invests in a friend's property portfolio

Goodness me! What a time it must have been.

🙄