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.

Seems not. At this juncture anyway. Apparently embezzling significant sums of money is ok with your publisher as long as you didn't directly lie in the book about the reason for the homelessness.

If I was a literary figure, I would be embarrassed at the way all the gushing quotes are being used to market the books, still.

In the trade its often referred to as 'artistic licence'!

Thanks for your guidance @DisappointedReader.

This is probably bit of a damp squid squib but here's details from the marriage certificate.

Timothy Ronald Walker was a Plasterer from Burton on Trent, and that his father was a Master Plasterer - as we know. I raise an eyebrow at the idea that he went to university before becoming a Plasterer in the family business.

Sally Ann Winn was a Clerical Officer from a farm in Dunstall, Burton on Trent. Her father was a Farm Stockman.

Clerical Officer suggests a Civil Service job, which fits in with working in a law court. It was quite easy to get into the Civil Service in the 80s but some basic qualifications were required - I joined the Civil Service in the early 80s and some O Grades were required in Scotland. Presumably it was the same in England (GCSEs/O Levels).

As all parents are named, including mothers' maiden names, her pen name is on the certificate, albeit the wrong way round.

Age on marriage were 25 for Tim and 23 for Sally.

Is that something RW wrote about somewhere?

People in the Arts like musicians, actors, artists and writers can get away with and are forgiven an awful lot, things that 'civilians' would lose jobs, reputations and liberty over.

To be fair, Raymoth have experienced at least some consequences. Work has been cancelled like at Arvon, with Gigspanner, the film promotions and literary events. The fourth book has been delayed by a year and may still be cancelled. Then there is all the public exposure of the embezzlement, questions around Moth's diagnosis and the walks, amongst other things. Whether everyone believes the exposés or not, there has to have been some loss of both face and reputation.

Sorry, I can't remember specifically, but there seem to be a few interviews with Salty Walker where she said TimMoth was out for a walk, or buying groceries or something.
Like people have hinted at recently (sorry, I posted before seeing them), I too wonder if they have agreed that Raynor should speak to the journalists as TimMoth's tongue can run away with him. Also, if his memory has been affected he may not remember the story they've agreed on.

I have just learned that a non admissions clause is not the same as an NDA. Unlike NDAs non admissions clauses do not necessarily protect confidentiality ( unless a confidentiality agreement has also been signed). This means that the Hemmings family may have done nothing wrong in exposing RW ( unless a confidentiality agreement was also signed). An NDA is entirely different. It was on a non admissions basis that I believe RW settled the embezzlement.

The missing year - might he have had to do an Access course before the degree? If he had no A levels, or due to length of time out of formal education? He had practical experience, but entrance at degree level usually requires evidence of ability to handle academic work.

To be fair, I think when Moth talks about not being able to read, he's talking about brain fog, where you just can't concentrate and read the same sentence over and over. It doesn't stop you writing or reading short instruction . It's actually really frustrating but would definitely of been made worse by taking Pregabalin. I was put on this when I was first diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and I lost weeks. I'm not surprised he felt so much better and brighter when he came off it.

I look at the interviews with the likes of Rachel Joyce and Sarah Winman (whom SW has appeared with), note their effortless eloquence compared to SW's turgid regurgitation of a standardized trope, sense her feeling of being an imposter and wonder if she will ever be able to again share the stage with such literary luminaries in view of everything that has emerged over the last month.

Yes, thanks. Another question I have : does anyone know if Timmoth ever went to any of the literary festivals, there were so many that she attended - some quite local (like the mistake she made over someone's name at the Fowey Festival - across the river from Polruan).

Yes in TWS

Sally Walker v Sarah Winman. Bit of an unfair comparison, but compare and contrast.

Video | Facebook

This is a very good and probable suggestion- would account for the missing year but you can still get a loan, at least, to fund the course. If not a grant which could at least subsidise you.

Entrance requirements

I think in another thread someone mentioned that’ TW was at the Hay Literary festival this year.

Raynor Winn, Marianne Elliott, Rebecca Lenkiewicz and Elizabeth Karlsen talk to Martha Kearney - Hay Festival - Hay Festival Anytime Audio & Video

Mainly SW focussed festivals - N Cornwall, Bude, Fowey, Dulverton , Dartington Hall (Ways with Words) etc

Thanks. It is just that I came across something where someone was hoping to meet him and asked Salray. She said that he would be along soon or something and he wasn't seen, despite people hanging around and waiting.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/dec/06/home-is-a-state-of-mind-you-dont-need-walls
Moth is not here. He never bloody is!
Why do they do this,for fear of tripping up over each other's lies ?

https://anyporthinastorm.com/index.php/articles/15-the-salt-path-a-walk-without-a-moral-compass?

Just found this detailed critique, nothing new but thorough!

Interestingly there have been no public comments about the TSP controversy by a number of Cornwall based literary figures whose paths have crossed SW's over the last few years.

Maybe everybody is either waiting for what further revelations will emerge or see no 'brand advantage' from entering the debate. I follow a few Cornish based authors who have been voluble abut issues such as the Gaza conflict but noticeably reticent on the Salt Path controversy.

Another picture of a tent (to show they camp), and some of them in the Pennines:

»Overland« by Raynor Winn - ZEIT REISEN

Obsessively enjoying these threads, thank you, and my first time on MN. I read TSP in 2020 at a time when I was very ill but undiagnosed and felt very angry with the just pull-yourself-together-and-walk narrative which is very ableist. Spent a good number of years thinking I wasn’t trying hard enough when I could hardly walk round the block. I don’t have CBS/CBD but am physically and cognitively impaired due to a rare brain tumour and find Moth’s incredible ability to carry a heavy backpack and walk over uneven and steep coastal paths simply impossible to believe if he’s as ill as he’s supposed to be. I’d give anything to be able to walk like that.
Regarding SW’s long winded statement on her website in which she says she’s getting ongoing legal advice, I’d put money on her legal people telling her to sit tight and don’t say anything while they negotiate with the papers. Which she didn’t of course, and I don’t believe anyone would have advised her to print those medical letters. They will be grilling her to get the whole truth otherwise they won’t be able to put a meaningful case to The Observer etc to retract. So I’m very curious to see how that all pans out especially as CH said in the live event this week that they hadn’t had any legal threats from SW’s team but are in contact. Which suggests her legal people are working very hard to find a way forward.
(I have a small experience of being libelled by the press a number of years ago and once I’d put in my initial complaint to the then PCC my legal team did everything and got swift retractions, apologies published online and in print and the stories removed from websites). If The Observer’s reporting turns out to be a pack of lies it will be very straightforward for SW’s legal team to send them to the cleaners…

@CatsOfDoom Thanks so much for your contribution.

Unbelievable number of cat lovers - even ones like @AldoGordo who has a new kitten. JD Vance would hate it on here ......