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
Thread One ^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 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/ami^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?
Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami^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?
Thread 5 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/ami^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?
Thread 7 www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami^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?
Thread 8 www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami^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?
Thread 9 www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami^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?
Thread 10 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/ami^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?
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.

Our Correspondent with IT Portfolio - once we find one - can remove the worsening Ann Summers ads while they're at it.

After watching the moth video posted by a pp, I'm getting ads for The Very Hungry Caterpillar book!

I thought the threads had gone quiet! Turns out I was just a whole thread behind!

It may be slightly busy tomorrow too once everyone has had the chance to read the latest from The Observer.

I just hope everyone is able to sleep tonight and not overtired tomorrow from overexcitement. Chloe H she is spoiling us.

Most of Tim's relatives seem to have moved to North Wales, ; his father, aunt and uncle and I think most or all of their five children. It would be interesting to see if they moved there before or after the Raymoths did.

Of course it was. Writing under a pseudonym, she could never have presented her book anywhere in the area, it would have blown her cover straight away.

I highly doubt there really were any shipments abroad.I think this was probably made up in order to make the book and house raffle seem more legitimate.

Place-marking on the new thread, though the last one whizzed by faster than a pack of Christmas fudge!

Im travelling between uk and France atm but will try to keep up a little better on this thread.

Merci a tous!

Observer article is out. Couple of interviews with owners/managers of establishments incorrectly depicted in TSP. Have a feeling there will be more to come I.e this is not the last article.

Here is the link to the Observer article

The Salt Path: Portrayals that left a sour taste

Excellent piece by Chloe H which provides compelling evidence that certain incidents in TSP are completely fictitious. It raises the question, how much of the narrative and incidents described are simply untrue. Suspect there will be more to follow!

CH's article really shows SW & TW's true colours.

The pair of them are pathological liars, without any moral code or conscience.

From alleged embezzlement to lying about cafe owners, they don't care about hurting people or businesses.

What an awful couple.

Thank you for sharing

Uh that left a horrible taste in my mouth. I haven't read the books as I find memoirs boring but I knew from these threads that the narrator gave a negative vibe to many readers. I can see what people meant now - through their depiction of others the narrator comes across as nasty.

Also - CH mentions online forums - we get a nod!

“They were quite strange and a bit rude”. Oh dear.

So that's at least five establishments who say TSP's "unflinchingly truthful" descriptions are completely untrue, upsetting and even damaging.

It's very telling that SW never even replied to that cafe owner's email.

I've never read the books but the extracts above just seem far too neat and convenient to be true, and cynically designed to press the buttons of readers and publishers who are thirsty for a 'free-spirited underdogs versus evil capitalists' narrative. They are telling a certain kind of person exactly what they want to hear.

Again, I just can't get over how bad the actual writing is; how clichéd and pat. The tone of scorn and moral superiority when it comes to the people they (fictitiously) meet is totally redolent of the nastier elements of modern activist culture. You can see why the book hit the zeitgeist. It simultaneously taps into the cry-bully purity spirals of current activism and into that cost-of-living anxiety which leads to endless broadsheet features on how living on a barge/in a micro-home/in a campervan is actually liberating and empowering and not a matter of making a virtue out of necessity.

North Devon correspondent here. The Fairway Bouy is a lovely pub in Westward Ho! which overlooks a walkway with a sea barrier. Absolutely amazing views from it especially the top deck. It has definitely never had a quiz night. Kids love the walkway outside because at high tide the waves crash over it and it’s fun to try an avoid them. It’s honestly one of my favourite places in town. However knowing Rob he will be using this as an advertising opportunity… as slagged off in TSP maybe?

Reflects very badly on Penguin that, to this day, their website is still marketing the book with the statement that it is unflinchingly honest and true.

That was a bit disappointing, I thought. ‘Pub has never had quiz night’ and ‘You fictionalised my establishment negatively’.

But it wasn't said to be fiction: it was "non-fixtion", and he very negative descriptions were said (by the author and an extremely reputable publisher) to be a "true" and "unflinchingly honest" account.

It's just so arrogant to write a disparaging account of a specific café, in a supposedly true story, which is so easy to prove false

Yes, but the descriptions of the establishments in question are clearly fictional if the Mullion Cove cafe doesn’t have a letterbox or serve panini, the Westward Ho! pub has never had a quiz night etc. That’s what the owners and the former manager of the Treen campsite are objecting to, being fictionalised negatively.

(Though the instance from Kinlochbervie is a bit misleading, anyway, because even though they’re not allowed in, acc RW, the staff member comes outside to serve them at an outside table, explains they’re trying to stay clear of Covid, and is perfectly civil, and helpful — she’s the one who confirms the Cape Wrath trail is closed and suggests they camp at Sheigra.)

@CoolBath I wonder if these accounts could be viewed as libelous? If trade has been affected/reputations damaged, is there a case against Penguin? After all, the publisher is very clear that the account is ‘unflinchingly honest’.

I think not, as she doesn't name them specifically.

@OpenThatWindow I agree. This suggests that somebody with knowledge of what constitutes legal wiggle room has looked carefully at this manuscript before publication. In house editors would be very careful about possible law suits. How much is known about the ‘truth’ of this book within the institution?