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]

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
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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 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.

I was going by RW's own website statement. A ' non admissions ' rather than an NDA is probably why the whole village knew about the embezzlement at the time.

I didn’t realise that! I’m astonished no one has spilt the tea until now.

Yes, that's a good point actually 🤔

Whichever it was , it wasn't signed until SW had got the funds to pay back the Hemmings. Between the discovery of the theft and her arrest, and that time, the word would have gone round the local area.

It's possible a confidentiality clause was also signed as an addition to the non admissions..but RW does not allude to this.

From the original Observer splash:

"Back in Wales, Hemmings recalls how her husband Martin was contacted by “some fancy London solicitor” who told them Walker would pay all the missing money and would cover legal costs on both sides if – and only if – Martin agreed not to pursue a criminal case against her. Martin also had to sign a non-disclosure agreement." (My bold)

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 non-admissions is a separate but linked thing. As others have noted, SW said she paid the money to the Hemmings' on a "non-admissions basis."

Good point!

Sorry to be pedantic but if they weren't able to talk about it but had talked to JI about it, they had already broken the NDA (if there was one) by discussing it with him. And if he knew that they couldn't talk about it, he wasn't doing them any favours by bringing it up.

I still find his comment odd.

Ah, I didn't clock this...my apologies!

He may just have meant "you won't say it", assuming SW and TW were holding back out of delicacy.

So the NDA was to protect Winn, not Hemmings - so why the fear of JI mentioning that 'they had been conned'?

I'm beginning to think JI isn't very bright!

Four weeks after the original Observer article as well as the follow up articles in various outlets, what do you think are the KEY questions which remain unanswered at this stage of the controversy?

Hamfisted damage limitation I think. By that point she was locked into the publicity drive, but knew the Observer was investigating her for the embezzlement. My guess is she thought focusing on the 'emotional truth' of TSP and avoiding talk of 'Cooper' would make it easier to ride out the storm if/when the scandal broke.

but RW does not allude to this.

She wouldn't though, would she? She doesn't allude to a lot of uncomfortable things.

I was going by RW's own website statement.

I would take much of that statement with a large pinch of salt!

I do agree of course that 'on a non-admissions basis' and an NDA are two very different things although they can co-exist. Like others, I remember reading that a 'fancy London lawyer' was engaged on behalf of the Walkers and Mr Hemmings had to sign an NDA in order to receive the money. Hopefully someone will have the source on hand. ETA Thanks to @FloreatAmbridge for doing so in the blink of an eye!

Can anyone point me to any of the questionble ferry crossings that have been discussed here please?

I'm not the poster you tagged, Hyenana, but I am a multi-published author and can confirm that 8 months from submission to publication for an unknown author is impossible. Eighteen months would be pushing it but eight - no way. Apart from anything else, publishers' lists (of the up-coming, already accepted titles) are carefully planned months and months in advance, to balance the spread and make sure there's not too many of the same genre coming out at once, for example.

Gillan creek - old man and a dog in a rowing boat. There is a public ferry apparently.

How did the book get published? By that, I don't necessarily mean how was it allowed to be published, I mean what was the publication process and timeline of it? Because it seems apparent that 8 to 9 months is not enough time to go through all of the usual steps to publish. So how did they genuinely achieve it?

I wonder if SW is going to try to explain away some of TW’s statements, (such as really being called Ray, and his conversation with Bill Cole about having been told not to plan after Christmas) on mental confusion caused by his illness. I bet she does!

The article about homelessness, leading to a publishing contract, seems also like a variation on stealth marketing.

The first KEY ones to spring to my mind concern the before and miraculous after brain scans and the terminal diagnosis with prognosis of 2 years (said in a filmed interview by SW - can't remember which one)/1-3 months (said to Bill Cole by TW - Observer). As medical records are rightly confidential, we will only know if Raymoth choose to release clear evidence to support their claims. Unless there is a leak. I think these claims made about TW's health are crucial to them being able to salvage their reputation. In comparison even SW's embezzlement is less serious.

For me it is did they deliberately mislead people as to the health benefits of walking and limited diets.

Because if they did that is beyond the pale.

I remember Marian Keyes saying it takes around two years to publication from the time of her finishing a novel. So if TSP was published in March 2018, SW must have had an agent by around spring 2016. Which means the walk couldn't have been in 2015, could it? Unless she had another book (the sequel to Dal y Dir?) ready to be retrofitted.

Or am I just losing the plot?!

I think the thinking is that perhaps the walk came before the diagnosis, but the book came / was rewritten/ finished after.