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.

Perhaps SW also told Moth that Hemmings had lent her the money..that might explain why he stuck by her.

If as has been alleged she was forging Martin Hemmings signature on cheques, it would rather gravitate against being explicable as a loan., as would the absence of any documentation/repayment plan.

I'm afraid her actions were those of a guilty person IMO. If I knew I hadn't embezzled money, Hell would freeze over before I skipped town after arrest and started raising huge amounts via a loan from relatives. Anyone normal (and innocent) would say "I didn't steal anything and it is up to you to prove that I did if you think it the case" and let an investigation take place. It is the way the law works.

Yes, I completely agree with this.
There’s obviously a reason why she isn’t issuing a denial or taking action against the Observer.

interesting that in her ‘rebuttal she makes a point of saying she worked for Martin Hemmings’ business in the years leading up to the economic crash. While the crash undoubtedly impacted on many businesses, this seems like yet another deflection. Saying it was a ‘pressured time’ for her and that ‘mistakes were being made in the business’ - again, just broad statements which mean nothing, but reek of trying to deflect from any wrongdoing by herself

I think the proof was probably there in a small local business of good reputation to eventually achieve a conviction, yes, with the bank's help and evidence of forged cheques paying for SW's shopping. She would have been unable to evidence where the extra money came from in her own finances too. However taking the money/NDA offer was the best and quickest way the Hemmings had of getting it all back, avoiding a long drawn out court case and a scandal for the business. For SW it also avoided a possible prison sentence and scandal for her own family.

She said she could have ‘sofa surfed’ but it would have led to an inevitable falling out with friends & family - why, I wondered?

SW might have claimed that Mr Hemmings wanted to keep the loan quiet hence why there was no loan agreement...I can imagine her saying that, sadly....I wouldn't put it past her.

All good questions. I think the only one that can be answered at present is the final one:

Was this another attempt at fraud, raffling the house whilst claiming that it was mortgage/debt-free when it very clearly wasn't?

I don't think so. My understanding is the whole idea of the raffle was to sell enough books that equalled or exceeded the value of the house and debts. Thereby, had it raised that amount, they could have paid off the mortgage and the debt, leaving a house free of all charges to give to the winner. The caveat is we can't know if they would have simply taken the money and done a runner had it been a success, leaving the house to be repossessed and no prize winner announced. They were clearly very desperate to think it was ever worth attempting.

it was clear from the interview with Martin Hemmings’ wife and daughter that the situation was such a source of stress and embarrassment to them, and repayment of the money and the NDA seemed the ‘best’ outcome all round.

SW should have realised she’d got off lightly as the alternative would likely have been a custodial sentence. 64k is equivalent to over 100k now, taking inflection into account. I think the maximum she could have worked for the Hemmings was about 8 years (going by the timelines.) it’s equivalent to stealing about £1000 every month in terms of value.

CH has said she believes Ray to be I W-T. With what evidence I wonder?

Stopcock would also be interesting to examine.

Legally, you are supposed to send the British Library one copy of anything you publish in the UK, and people can request a view of anything they hold (in their reading room).

I tried to do a catalogue search on the BL website with that ISBN number and
it came back with nothing. Quite possible I didn't do the search properly, so someone more used to database searches might get a hit... although it's entirely possible that a self-publisher didn't know/wouldn't bother about the BL copy.

I'm prefacing this with the usual 'this might have already been posted' (I really can't keep up!) but CH was looking for Salray's first book shortly before her investigation was published. She obviously thinks it's significant.

From blurb from HNTDDD:

‘One signature two very different outcomes’
[thinking of forged Hemmings signature & Ray’s].

‘They aren’t expecting the investment the future is based on to go so painfully wrong’

What were they/she doing with the embezzled funds? How did they afford/purchase Welsh house & French ruin? Did they have previously good credit history for mortgage?

@AldoGordo about other ferry inconsistencies - we were discussing the Falmouth ferry earlier in the thread (or the previous one?) and how Salray argued about the price being expensive despite them being on foot, when all passengers on that ferry are on foot, there’s not a car ferry from Falmouth

To add ‘will the pending economic tsunami catch up with him’ - based on a BIL? Shades of rebuttal & 2008 financial crisis? Hemmings’ business?

‘Eisteddfod Mums’ - her locale?
’Indian hoteliers’ - stint in India? Local community?
‘In the end there is only one question what’s in the bag?’

Swag?

Perhaps Chloe H has already tried this, but if not, I wonder if she could get in touch with the people on GoodReads who’ve reviewed HNTDDD to ask if any of them could help her get a copy of it.

Someone called Joanne Thompson asked on Goodreads 17 days ago. A sleuthing MNer perhaps?!

I think she's already tried.

Ah cocaine millionaire ‘Jeremy’ is also a ‘childhood friend’.

Also a narrative about Welsh poverty.

I assume that lots of people have already seen this but I’ve only just bothered to look at it.
This extract from HNTDDD is so SW.
All it needs is a bit of gorse and noodles and it would be a no-brainer.

Book starting with innocent woman squashed in a small space and facing some sort of exile from her land - tick
Headlands and wind - tick
Fantasy of being carried away and being wild and free - tick
Link to history (“a hundred years”) - tick
“The inevitable” - tick
It’s all gone - tick
Breathy sense of jeopardy - tick

I can see why CH is convinced it’s her.

Ooh where did you find this extract? Good find!

ETA: and you’re spot on - it’s the same narrative voice she uses in TSP.

For sure but wondered if any proof as such. What’s the ref to ‘two signatures’ I wonder? Swag in bag?

NB: Also ref to poverty/homelessness haves/have nots. Poss why needed all the recoilers in TSP? To stretch previous theme.

NB: also ‘family friend’ dispute, ‘property tycoon doing better’ but drug addled.

Ray said big family fall outs if asked to stay at TSP start. Why? How did ‘family friends’ feel about HDTDDD’s content??!

I just googled it and found this blogpost:
americymru.net/ceri-shaw/group_discuss/57/how-not-to-dal-dy-dir-by-izzy-wyn-thomas-archived-material

The tone is also like the start of LL…

Plus the phrase “pick apart” which - although not uncommon - she notably uses in her rebuttal

This has been shared in here before - although it was probably a long way back

P182 in the Penguin paperback edition. In chapter 16, 'Searching'

Just for background, could one of our writing correspondents tell us how the Izzy Wyn-Thomas book gets onto goodreads Waterstone and amazon? I would have thought a first book from a first time publisher would have trouble gaining such exposure. Thanks