Page 15 | Thread 12: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

DisappointedReader · 2025-08-02T11:25:02+00:00

The Observer [[https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit 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 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 https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video]] 4th Observer [[https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/moth-told-me-he-was-dying-when-a-doctor-had-said-his-brain-scan-was-normal ‘I felt I was being gaslit’ – the landlord who helped Ray...]] Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement [[https://www.raynorwinn.co.uk/ Raynor Winn]] Thread One ^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?* 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 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5368685-thread-2-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?page=1 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]] Thread 3 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film being]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film unreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?]] Thread 4 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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 being]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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 unreasonable/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 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5371570-thread-5-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film 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]] Thread 6 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film being]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film unreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-]] [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?]] Thread 7 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5373425-thread-7-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film? www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5373425-thread-7-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film? being]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5373425-thread-7-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film? unreasonable/5373425-thread-7-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?]] Thread 8 [[https://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? www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami]]^[[https://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? being]]^[[https://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? 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?]] Thread 9 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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? www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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? being]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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? unreasonable/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/am_i_being_unreasonable/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 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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 being]]^[[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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 unreasonable/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?]] Thread 11 [[https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5382212-thread-11-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5382212-thread-11-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 [[https://observer.co.uk/collections/the-real-salt-path 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 eleven 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. Will our life-size cardboard cut-out Simon Armitage keep his head? *NB Timeline coming in the first posts of this thread for reference.*

crossedlines · 03/08/2025 11:25

AldoGordo · 03/08/2025 11:19

RW wrote in TSP that Parkinsons was ruled out. If we are to believe her is another matter.

Show quote history

Exactly. Didn’t she say other conditions were ruled out too (perhaps this was in a later book?) that he’d had loads of tests and scans going back a while. there should be medical letters going back at least as early as 2011 is that right?

101Seagulls · 03/08/2025 11:29

Thought today's CH article poor and just gossip really. Not worth newspaper space though I take her point about it adding some more weight to RW being an unreliable narrator.

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:29

mauvishagain · 03/08/2025 11:14

I agree that Moths miracle fire would be very worthy of an academic paper or 3.

The problem there is the risk of patient identification, which would be pretty easy in a case study of 1! For this reason, I believe that TW would need to give consent for his details to be used in the writing of the paper. If he refused consent I think it would be very difficult to write anything that could be published during TW's lifetime.

But Moth was involved with a charity suppprting people who had it and was almost the face of the charity. If he was genuinely getting a benefit from something he was doing he should have been happy to be studied and have medical articles published even if it was known he was the patient. He didn’t need his anonymity protected. But his neurologist doesn’t suggest studying him. Because he knows he doesn’t have it?

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:30

101Seagulls · 03/08/2025 11:29

Thought today's CH article poor and just gossip really. Not worth newspaper space though I take her point about it adding some more weight to RW being an unreliable narrator.

Have you read all theee articles published today?

SwetSwetSwet · 03/08/2025 11:32

Re the cricket. This is the quote from TSP:
‘Five overs left. They’re talking about the light. There’s a chance it could be a draw; it’s a shame – we could win this.’
We lay in the grass by the tent and watched seagulls flying over in flocks as England won the Ashes, but the match was a draw and Jonathan Agnew got in a flap about it being a ‘disgrace’.

This seems to be the fifth test, 21 to 25 August 2013, and is very similar to the bbc report, which is also mentioned in wiki.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/23837976

But, in fact, England had already won the ashes, as that was the fifth test match, and they had won 3. I'm puzzled why Moth hadn't been listening to the cricket before the final day!

CoolBath · 03/08/2025 11:34

AldoGordo · 03/08/2025 11:10

Just read - what a load of exaggerated nonsense. One minute Moth has paralysing vertigo, the next he's reassuring Ray and jumping into a river. Curious to know what waterfall and where this was as I probably know it. I believe they visited the Falls of Glomach which is a large waterfall on a marginally exposed path, but this description doesn't tally with that.

Edited

Show quote history

Do you mean the bit in LL where Moth gets paralysing vertigo? Yes, that’s identified as the Falls of Glomach.

Catwith69lives · 03/08/2025 11:36

SwetSwetSwet · 03/08/2025 11:32

Re the cricket. This is the quote from TSP:
‘Five overs left. They’re talking about the light. There’s a chance it could be a draw; it’s a shame – we could win this.’
We lay in the grass by the tent and watched seagulls flying over in flocks as England won the Ashes, but the match was a draw and Jonathan Agnew got in a flap about it being a ‘disgrace’.

This seems to be the fifth test, 21 to 25 August 2013, and is very similar to the bbc report, which is also mentioned in wiki.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/23837976

But, in fact, England had already won the ashes, as that was the fifth test match, and they had won 3. I'm puzzled why Moth hadn't been listening to the cricket before the final day!

Exactly. It makes zero sense. Also, why is the radio (which weighs as much as a bag of sugar) never again mentioned in TSP?

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:37

Catwith69lives · 03/08/2025 11:13

Correction - sales of TSP have continued to FALL since the film was released in late May as well as post the Observer article which appeared 4 weeks ago.. During the last 6 weeks sales have declined as follows: 14,145/12,280/9,245/7,535/6,235 to 5,680 last week.

Edited

Show quote history

Good to see. Do you have any info on sales of TWS and LL?

The article CH published today in relation to Penguin ends with industry insiders saying something about perhaps letting the books quietly fall out of print. I think this is the least Penguin could do. I don’t want to see the Walkers make another penny from their harmful lies.

User14March · 03/08/2025 11:38

AldoGordo · 03/08/2025 11:19

RW wrote in TSP that Parkinsons was ruled out. If we are to believe her is another matter.

Show quote history

Thank you. Not MS though?

Hyenana · 03/08/2025 11:38

mauvishagain · 03/08/2025 11:14

I agree that Moths miracle fire would be very worthy of an academic paper or 3.

The problem there is the risk of patient identification, which would be pretty easy in a case study of 1! For this reason, I believe that TW would need to give consent for his details to be used in the writing of the paper. If he refused consent I think it would be very difficult to write anything that could be published during TW's lifetime.

But why would a man who has already consented to his wife exposing all kinds of personal information, including of him lying on the bathroom floor and peeing himself, in multiple books to millions of readers, not consent to being the subject of a medical paper, especially if it could contribute to a cure?
And what do you think about the claim that living mainly on instant noodles while doing the walk could have had healing properties? I mean I have heard of low-calorie diets as part of treatment, but I doubt they would be like that?

PullTheBricksDown · 03/08/2025 11:38

CoolBath · 03/08/2025 09:39

Hmm. So the disclaimer was always there in that form, from the first edition. Interesting. I suppose that suggests that the real concern of the PRH legal team was whether the book was making actionable claims about walking being a miracle cure for an identifiable illness.

I don’t blame the editor for wanting RW to take her mother’s death out of TSP. I think that was a good decision, because it would have drawn too much attention away from the walk and towards the ‘now’ of the writing. Other people are better on the timelines than I am — is her mother’s death now placed roughly ‘correctly’ in time, during Moth’s first year of studies?

Currently reading TWS, after it arrived yesterday, and there are various events that are all over the place. Raynor’s mother's death seems to occur in the right place, ie early 2015, and with Moth then doing his degree (or access course as we now think 2014-15 may have been). But she mainly refers to months without being clear about longer periods of time going by. A bit later they're out in the country, I think after a consultant's appointment, and come across a group of young people playing Linkin Park and mourning the death of Chester Bennington. My general impression of narrative time was that this is the summer of the same year, ie 2015, but when I checked, Chester Bennington died in July 2017. So the overall timeline is a bit hazy.

More later - I have the final section where they go to Iceland with Dave and Julie yet 😃

Catwith69lives · 03/08/2025 11:38

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:37

Good to see. Do you have any info on sales of TWS and LL?

The article CH published today in relation to Penguin ends with industry insiders saying something about perhaps letting the books quietly fall out of print. I think this is the least Penguin could do. I don’t want to see the Walkers make another penny from their harmful lies.

Show quote history

No info on LL or TWS sales as they don't make it into the weekly ST bestseller list.

Stravaig · 03/08/2025 11:39

Weren't there some carefully worded ponderings many threads ago that Tim/Moth's symptoms earlier in a walk and perceived improvements later in a walks could map perfectly onto a description of withdrawal? Whether from prescription meds, unhealthy diet, alcohol, or other recreational substance misuse is open to interpretation. Entitled fringes, costume, pain, paranoia, hmmm.

CoolBath · 03/08/2025 11:40

101Seagulls · 03/08/2025 11:29

Thought today's CH article poor and just gossip really. Not worth newspaper space though I take her point about it adding some more weight to RW being an unreliable narrator.

The one @Choux posted screenshots of in this thread (not online, or at least not that I can see) is far more significant.

In a way I’m puzzled as to why that wasn’t the ‘lead’ story on it, rather than three people annoyed at how they or their establishments were fictionalised negatively. (Though I actually find it hilarious that Tadge, the Treen campsite guy who is characterised as a ‘frustrated box ticker ‘under a shell of hippy cool’ is actually a proper off grid back to the land hippy, far more so than the Walkers.)

Fandango52 · 03/08/2025 11:41

Catwith69lives · 03/08/2025 11:36

Exactly. It makes zero sense. Also, why is the radio (which weighs as much as a bag of sugar) never again mentioned in TSP?

Show quote history

My only thought is it adds a bit of - admittedly very light - drama to the narrative, with it being the final match of the Ashes.

Also, it’s a very good plot device from a marketability perspective, because it’s almost a tickbox exercise for an advertisement for the U.K. tourist board: camping, cricket, being out in nature, the British seaside, unusually decent summer weather… That’s probably why TSP sold so well abroad. It really has everything you could wish for in a memoir 🤣🤣

User14March · 03/08/2025 11:42

Catwith69lives · 03/08/2025 11:36

Exactly. It makes zero sense. Also, why is the radio (which weighs as much as a bag of sugar) never again mentioned in TSP?

Show quote history

Did she put the Ashes in as supports her truth of the year & timeline?

Catwith69lives · 03/08/2025 11:43

Fandango52 · 03/08/2025 11:41

My only thought is it adds a bit of - admittedly very light - drama to the narrative, with it being the final match of the Ashes.

Also, it’s a very good plot device from a marketability perspective, because it’s almost a tickbox exercise for an advertisement for the U.K. tourist board: camping, cricket, being out in nature, the British seaside, unusually decent summer weather… That’s probably why TSP sold so well abroad. It really has everything you could wish for in a memoir 🤣🤣

Show quote history

Including loads of Americans and Aussies that they meet on the walk (all of whom will be conveniently untraceable to verify the incidents described....)!

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:43

SwetSwetSwet · 03/08/2025 11:32

Re the cricket. This is the quote from TSP:
‘Five overs left. They’re talking about the light. There’s a chance it could be a draw; it’s a shame – we could win this.’
We lay in the grass by the tent and watched seagulls flying over in flocks as England won the Ashes, but the match was a draw and Jonathan Agnew got in a flap about it being a ‘disgrace’.

This seems to be the fifth test, 21 to 25 August 2013, and is very similar to the bbc report, which is also mentioned in wiki.
www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/23837976

But, in fact, England had already won the ashes, as that was the fifth test match, and they had won 3. I'm puzzled why Moth hadn't been listening to the cricket before the final day!

that’s the kind of mistake I would make if you asked me to write a story about cricket a few years after the event. Not enough research about the whole series to know the last match wasn’t the really important one as in most sports it is. And anyone really into cricket and carrying a radio would have kept tally on the series score and listened to the match with the most jeopardy.

CoolBath · 03/08/2025 11:46

PullTheBricksDown · 03/08/2025 11:38

Currently reading TWS, after it arrived yesterday, and there are various events that are all over the place. Raynor’s mother's death seems to occur in the right place, ie early 2015, and with Moth then doing his degree (or access course as we now think 2014-15 may have been). But she mainly refers to months without being clear about longer periods of time going by. A bit later they're out in the country, I think after a consultant's appointment, and come across a group of young people playing Linkin Park and mourning the death of Chester Bennington. My general impression of narrative time was that this is the summer of the same year, ie 2015, but when I checked, Chester Bennington died in July 2017. So the overall timeline is a bit hazy.

More later - I have the final section where they go to Iceland with Dave and Julie yet 😃

Show quote history

That could absolutely have been dropped in from anywhere in a RL timeline. It certainly sits very strangely where it is placed in the narrative of TWS, where they’ve signed a tenancy agreement for the cider farm with Bill Cole in late 2018, and only moved onto the farm in spring 2019 when TSP comes out in paperback, and started rewilding. Leaving for a completely optional Iceland holiday at the end of August/start of September of that year, just when they would be about to manage their first apple harvest, seems like a deeply weird decision.

Fandango52 · 03/08/2025 11:46

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:37

Good to see. Do you have any info on sales of TWS and LL?

The article CH published today in relation to Penguin ends with industry insiders saying something about perhaps letting the books quietly fall out of print. I think this is the least Penguin could do. I don’t want to see the Walkers make another penny from their harmful lies.

Show quote history

I don’t want to see the Walkers make another penny from their harmful lies.

Me too. I hope they’ll eventually be made to pay back at least some of their profits. I’m not holding my breath on that, but will keep my fingers crossed.

Catwith69lives · 03/08/2025 11:47

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:43

that’s the kind of mistake I would make if you asked me to write a story about cricket a few years after the event. Not enough research about the whole series to know the last match wasn’t the really important one as in most sports it is. And anyone really into cricket and carrying a radio would have kept tally on the series score and listened to the match with the most jeopardy.

Show quote history

The 4th Ashes Test was played from 9-13 Aug and England won. If they set off from Minehead on the 7th Aug, presumably Moth would have been listening to this Test match as well!

SwetSwetSwet · 03/08/2025 11:49

Choux · 03/08/2025 11:43

that’s the kind of mistake I would make if you asked me to write a story about cricket a few years after the event. Not enough research about the whole series to know the last match wasn’t the really important one as in most sports it is. And anyone really into cricket and carrying a radio would have kept tally on the series score and listened to the match with the most jeopardy.

Show quote history

😄
England won the series on the Fourth Test, scheduled from Fri 9 to Tues 13 August. It must have finished a day early, as Wikipedia says: In the fourth innings, England dismissed Australia for 224 by the end of the fourth day to secure an unassailable 3–0 lead in the series.
The Fifth Test ran from Wed 21 Aug, but was obviously not of so much interest to my husband.
Crossposted with above 😀

User14March · 03/08/2025 11:50

Has anyone encountered Lettuce the tortoise on s lead? Surely very memorable!

Fandango52 · 03/08/2025 11:51

CoolBath · 03/08/2025 11:40

The one @Choux posted screenshots of in this thread (not online, or at least not that I can see) is far more significant.

In a way I’m puzzled as to why that wasn’t the ‘lead’ story on it, rather than three people annoyed at how they or their establishments were fictionalised negatively. (Though I actually find it hilarious that Tadge, the Treen campsite guy who is characterised as a ‘frustrated box ticker ‘under a shell of hippy cool’ is actually a proper off grid back to the land hippy, far more so than the Walkers.)

Show quote history

The more I read the ‘frustrated box ticker under a shell of hippy cool’ description, the more I love it 🤣🤣 that’s probably one of my favourite sentences in the whole book. Many passages aren’t particularly well written, but every so often, and mostly when something has reeeally got her back up, our Sal shows she has a way with words.

CoolBath · 03/08/2025 11:51

Stravaig · 03/08/2025 11:39

Weren't there some carefully worded ponderings many threads ago that Tim/Moth's symptoms earlier in a walk and perceived improvements later in a walks could map perfectly onto a description of withdrawal? Whether from prescription meds, unhealthy diet, alcohol, or other recreational substance misuse is open to interpretation. Entitled fringes, costume, pain, paranoia, hmmm.

There were. They were hilarious, though I don’t think they’re true, but it would actually make a certain amount of sense to see many of the events of TSP as the hallucinations of someone coming off some fairly heavy stuff — the tortoises, the general paranoia about others, the hostility from passers-by etc).