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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husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?
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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?

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.

This is beginning to sound like an episode of the X Files with Mulder and Scully!

Tbf, if it was that clever, it didn't really work.

They are clever, are they that clever? The silver boxes potentially the giveaway here.

The film was the problem IMO, really hard for the Hemmings etc to continue to stomach & if it really was the worst kept ‘secret’ locally as a commentator or two on the bookseller article has said, hard to keep forever under wraps even when NDAs involved.

I think they were very careful, as they knew things could come back to haunt them, so had a plan. Things got too big perhaps, which has proven a bit of a double edged sword.

In TSP it says:
The headland eased forward; mid-afternoon and there was a cooler chill in the air. Not the damp feel of approaching rain, but the softening, cooling suggestion of late August when the heat changes and there’s a smell of dewy nights and cobwebbed mornings to come. The end of the trail was near, just a day away. Moth would begin his degree in less than three weeks
If he was accepted but chose to do a gap year, he would surely know by that point? Also, in their case the study is supposed to be their source of income, so a gap year does not make sense.
There's still things that don't make sense.

Do we know when SW's mum died? It's not on the timeline as far as I can see.

As a Welsh speaking native of Pwllheli I'm finding these threads fascinating. I've been abroad for a couple of weeks and haven't been able to keep up as they've been progressing so fast, but could someone please explain the Simon Armitage connection?

Oh that is good. I was wondering if local people had been through all the local charity/second hand book shops to see if there is a copy of How Not to Dal Dy Dir?

Thanks @CocteauTwin

I think their stated occupations at the time are of interest.

I'm on the fence about addresses. @DisappointedReader - what do you think?

Opinions vary, but we try not to mention their family members by name, because they're not the ones involved, and it's not fair on them to be dragged into this on a public forum.

If you post too much info, Mumsnet will delete your post, so erring on the side of caution is a good plan!

Why not post their occupations, and the town/s where they lived, and see what DR has to say about specific addresses?

Has no one answered yet or did that go via pm?
Anyway, @DisappointedReader is in charge of rules.

Maybe we can find out online if the list of graduates-to-be is published online by TW’s uni? Unis sometimes release that information.

I think this book is very key for a few reasons. CH hasn't yet been able to find a copy so my feeling is there are very few about and maybe only a handful printed?

@AldoGordo early in 2015. (It's on public record)

Re deletions , I am pretty sure SW is following the threads , or someone else is for her. A couple of threads ago I got a bit carried away and followed up on some previous speculation about her current whereabouts. ( But not mentioning any actual place names ) . I took it down my post quite quickly with apologies because it was rightly pointed out that it was out of order . But the Instagram photo that she had posted on her feed that identified the area has now also disappeared ..

Being self-published, it may well have been a "print on demand" run.

I spent a week on holiday with someone who made a lot of money writing books about how to write books, and that was certainly her advice.

Good idea, although would you look at Plymouth University or Cornwall College or Eden project? 🤔
Maybe CH will answer that question tomorrow, or could be convinced that's a worthwhile line of inquiry.

Precisely, the "missing" year is an anomaly, as I previously discussed way back in the salty mists of time, because the book explains it as a means to get money and back on track to "normal" living. So how did they survive between Sept 2014 when the walk supposedly ended in Polruan and Sept 2015 when the studies began?

My growing suspicion is they were at Polly's for a lot longer than described (I.e an extra year), maybe earning money. Or do we know for 100% they lived in Polruan from Sept 2014?

Also note the timing.

In June 2015 the CBS diagnosis comes with reference to "planned" studies. So the uni idea is already in motion.

Could Raymoth have been pushing for a diagnosis, given the Pain Clinic made the referral to the neurologist as opposed his GP? The neurologist is led to believe an earlier referral from GP has gone astray, which suggests such a referral would ordinarily have come from a GP. So could this mean TW asked the pain clinic for a referral? And if so, for what motive?

I am now going to go out on a headland limb and be very speculative so i completely understand if anyone feels I've overstretched here, but if he could demonstrate his disability with a letter of diagnosis, would that then open the possibility to receive additional funding via DSA (Disabled Students Allowance)? I'm not saying he's not ill and it's of course clear a Dr did absolutely diagnose mild, indolent CBS.

But, fudge for thought. And for added salt, is this when RW had the idea for the book?

He could possibly get funding, but you don't get money with DSA.

You're allocated funding, say £5000 (or whatever), and this is used to provide you with what you need.

You don't actually see the money. So, for instance, you might be given a special chair, or computer equipment, be provided with a mentor, etc etc.

It's not a thing where you get extra money for having a disability. DSA funds equipment and services.

So, if they were angling for that, I'm not sure what the benefit would be, other than a better quality chair and so on.

Thanks! Do you (or anyone) know what RW says in TWS about her movements regarding her mum - does she stay with her for example? Maybe this could fill part of the missing year?

I think Dal dy Dir could be a bit of a red herring. Let's say a copy does surface. What does it prove? It's a first work of fiction by somebody using a pseudonym ( in all likelihood SW). Even if passages are found to be similar to those in TSP, what does that prove other than they are by the same author?

Maybe there is a question mark about the £10k prize she received as a supposed first time author, but in the greater scheme of things (ie the millions she has made from TSP) its not necessarily a huge big deal in the ongoing TSP controversy. More of a sad margin comment having sold just a few copies when it was meant to be their path to salvation by generating enough money to sell their house and repay their debt to the Hemmings.

Whatever happens next I think it's fair to assume their credibility is shot.

Is there a pattern of Moth telling other chaps 'more' about himself?

Bill Coles is told that Tim has 2 months to live
Jason has the suicidal thoughts, plus the not being able to read.
Even Boots hears that he is a lecturer (although I would put that in the botany degree category).

In light of my question above - I wondered if he is sent out for a walk on purpose? I know this has been shared before but it does have a good pic of Timmoth on the path, and the Polruan flat:

https://archive.ph/5Egia

With many but you'd be surprised how many paid up members of the 'Flat Earth Society' are out there.

Call it 'Stockholm Syndrome' or what you will, there is a psychological inability on the part of many to let go of deeply held beliefs.

For that reason, I suspect there will always be a die hard band of dedicated SW followers who will read whatever she publishes, even if her "brand" has been tarnished by the Observer revelations.

An anomaly here. Early in TSP, SW writes,

"Mum never really forgave me for giving up the security of a life married to a man with acres, and until the day she died never accepted Moth as being worthwhile".

Now of course this is probably a stylistic device. But it might be worth keeping in mind that TSP was allegedly written from contemporaneous notes made in 2013, and SWs mother died in 2015.

IIRC, mum's death features early in TWS.

I'm just reading TWS now and her time with her dying mum is during Moth's university time. So it isn't during the 'missing year' by her own account.

I think that SW claims she started writing/buffing out TSP in the autumn of 2016 so I wouldn't necessarily say it is out of kilter with the chronology.