Thread 13: 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's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

The 12 Observer reports currently available online: The real Salt Path | The Observer

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?^

Threads 2-11: Links all in the OP of Thread 12

Thread 12: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5384574-thread-12-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse welcome. It would be helpful to read at least some of the Observer items above before posting. There are currently 12 interesting items on The Observer website and linked to above.

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 twelve 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 our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

Have the sales or thefts of fudge gone up recently?
Will Simon's head ever turn up?
Has the shed of doubt yet burst at the seams?
Will the old charabanc hold up as a tour bus for our hip new band The Drive-By Scolders?
And finally, how much salt can we possibly cram into a giant pinch?

Keep to the path. No saltiness. May the fudge be with you.

@Tealeaf3 it’s usual for books to have a new cover from the film if a film version has been made, so I wouldn’t read anything into that. It’s just a marketing ploy

Times article:
"I don’t remember much about the week when our home was taken away and I was diagnosed with CBD."
Nicely done

Still have a shout out to a friend of mine who is a criminal behavioural psychologist for the French police force! I sent her a video interview of SW and TW where SW was saying yes but perhaps subconsciously shaking her head.

I would say that she could benefit from psychotherapy. It strikes me that she may have issues with her mother that she needs to address but this is probably fairly obvious from what I've read in this thread about TWS (which I haven't read - only read TSP and LL)

I don't know any of them. They don't seem to have sprung to prominence in the same way as SW, and my field of fiction (women's fiction) is a long way from theirs.

Any stylistic comparison would require a copy of HNTDDD to resurface. Which seems increasingly unlikely.

I think the objective reality is that HNTDDD has been an extremely minor part of this story so far, but trying to strip the prize from her (which in the absence of slam dunk evidence risks being contested) will draw the competition a lot of negative attention. They're probably just ignoring the issue and hoping it goes away.

@ShrinkWrappedInSeattle great post.

Aside from perpetuating the characteristic (and frankly increasingly wearying) “all other people are mean and rejecting” narrative, this exchange sounds especially unlikely.
Having and holding that narrative makes her feel justified for all of her actions, even when her narrative and reality are at odds with each other. More and more now I’m seeing the paradox between Sally Walker and Raynor Winn.

Raynor appears to be a beautiful, wild (part of the elements and the Earth) a free spirit, devoted to her soulmate Moth. She’s a fighter. A salt-of-the-Earth, dependable mother and friend. She spills her emotional reactions to Moth’s illness to us, the readers. We are her confidantes. She’s a little bit ditzy… and maybe that makes her more relatable because with everything all happening at once of course she forgot sun cream, a hat… Moth’s meds…. To cancel the house insurance…. The reader is played to forgive those acts because the only people affected by those mistakes are themselves.
Sally is the opposite I think and the disdainful voice throughout jars with the loving, free spirit. She’s the one with the underdog attitude which is born from insecurity I think. In reality they’re living with the crimes she committed. She’s shown no remorse or humility at any time, just self pity and deflection. How can we read the publisher’s or book store’s synopsis of her latest book now and not be repulsed by it?

OT but here is this year’s Wainwright Prize shortlist

One thing that struck me re-reading TSP is that an inordinate number of Americans and Australians are encountered on the walk. Is this a fictional device ( ie the Aussie at the cafe at Mullion Cove) designed to make points about the inherent evils of the capitalist system or a true reflection of the people met on the walk?

I've never walked the whole of the SWCP but can't remember having met such large numbers of Americans and Australians on the LDPs in the UK that I have walked.

Loved Richard Mabey's 'Nature Cure' a few years ago.

All the more reason to support our local libraries if AR is reading the library-only audiobook version and it doesn’t line Raymoth’s pockets further.

And a side note, but I LOVE Anne Reid. There was a fab interview with her in the Guardian recently: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jul/07/anne-reid-actor-interview-fame-desire-ambition-by-royal-appointment-theatre.

Oh I remember you've mentioned that before, I hope your friend will come back with something!

I recently went to a library to read the first part of TWS there (to avoid creating possible revenue).
I actually thought it was better written than TSP and the way she presented the relationship with her parents seemed more nuanced than I expected. For example their opposition to Tim for not 'having land' was not so much snobbery but based on them knowing how much she needed to live on the land - which might be complete romantic BS but there also might be some truth to it. But they are not painted as complete villains.

And some passages about her mother in hospital I found emotionally touching, although the mother is mostly a silent presence there, not really a character.

But her relationship with Tim seemed hero-worship to a degree I found spooky...
On the other hand, maybe it wasn't like that in reality - in the book their marriage sounds like they run to Scotland in 1981 to get secretly married while she still lives with her parents, but we know it happened in 1986, so much less romantic than in the books.

It could have been a really old brick phone they’ve kept for years and that still worked.

On the phone issue, I lived in rural Wales for a number of years until 2011. No one I knew used a mobile phone as standard. We all used landlines, and the mobile was just something kept in the bottom of your bag for emergencies.

I thought the same, but as long as she’s making them money (and she is making them a lot of money), it makes no sense to drop her. Why get rid of a golden goose?

It doesn’t answer the big questions though - e.g. does Moth have CBD? Did they do the whole walk when they said they did? Why did they lie? Why did they write the book? How did it get published so quickly? (Not fully in their control, I know, but I’d still like to know the answer to this!)

Ah I loved Dear Mrs Bird (not read the others though). It would have been a worthy winner!

Why drop her? Well, she is tainted, she has a limited shelf life (as a long distance walker aged 63), her schtick ( Moth + CBD reversal through walking LDPs) is becoming increasingly untenable and what new or original insights has she got to offer? In addition she seems to have exhausted most of the UK's LDPs and none of her follow up books are likely to generate the success/sales of TSP! Basically she has become something of an embarrassment.

Maybe they will take away the prize from her but do it privately. I don’t know.

I realise that it’s standard to change the cover to link to the film, and that was most likely always the plan, but it’s handy in that most people know that film makers will use a bit of artistic license so by visually linking the latest edition of the book to the film, new readers will be less likely to expect the book to be “ unflinchingly honest”, if you see what I mean. Also handy if Angela Harding wants to distance herself.

I don’t think she’s asked for her artwork not to be used, as it can still be seen in the small round imprint on the book. I think they’re - understandably - cashing in on the success of the film and the book, advertising the film to people who might not have seen it and advertising the book to people who’ve seen the film but not read the book.

We had a payg Nokia brick phone as a spare for the dc at around that age. You had to use it I think once every 6 months or it stopped working.

You know what? It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if that joyous smile of theirs is in fact because they've finished what they set out to do...walk to Land' s End. The book continually drops in Land's End as their destination until they reach it. So many "what do we do once we get to Land's End?", can we get as far as LE?" etc etc. In the story it's used as a narrative plot point to create a sense of the unknown, but the amount of time it's written about is questionable (I checked by searching the book for LE references)

What if this is what they actually did in 2013? What if this is what SW originally started to write about to form the book idea?

So the smiles could be their genuine joy of achievement. Perhaps.

Could well be. Just need to track down those members of the CAMDRAM G&S production of Iolanthe at the Minack to see whether anybody remembers giving two backpackers a lift towards Treen campsite one evening between 16-21 Sept. Should be achievable for an investigative journalist. Cast members names are available as well as a 2013 CAMDRAM Iolanthe FB page!

Iolanthe at the Minack 2013 | I'll be heading back up to Durham this weekend and was thinking it might be fun to go to the pub before I leave | Facebook

There are a couple of us here!

These are some of the points that jump out at me from what she writes and says - (assuming SalRay is being truthful and - of course - being pure speculation on my part)
NB I’m not really commenting on the embezzlement - do we have any forensic psychologists here?

• extremely critical parents - always scolding her for exploring and curtailing her freedom/independence - don’t seem very attuned to her or her needs to the point of cruelty (Dad throws away the bluebells she’s picked - kills the water voles) NB she does not specifically call out her parents on this or show signs of being aware this behaviour is potentially harmful - almost as if she deserved it.
• speech impediment may be relevant to self confidence / lack of it
• childhood marked by hiding away, avoiding people- others are perceived as critical, scornful, judgemental, rejecting; evoking a range of emotions from her eg anxiety, anger, bitterness and entitlement
• her “safe place” is nature - no judgement or criticism there; no one to disappoint; ditto reading
• TimMoth - infatuated with him - becomes another “safe place” for her, expresses for her all the social confidence she lacks - the only person she indicates being able to lean on
• These patterns, expectations and projections continue into adulthood
• So - absolute joy when it’s just her and TimMoth in nature (happy photos); all the other emotions when it’s not her and TimMoth
• Beyond “normal” dread at the thought of losing TimMoth - he is so idealised - lots of catastrophising. Who is she without him?
• seems to continue to do a lot of hiding from self and others - not just about the embezzlement. Says she would never want counselling (LL) - says counsellors ask too many questions.
• It seems that her success with these books helped her to slowly grow in confidence (TWS) but I can only imagine the current situation (observer revelations) will undo all that - confirming her beliefs and prejudices about other people being a threat - and will lead to her doubling down on the hiding and withdrawing.

again - just musings and speculation….

So, for the sake of argument, there really is an Izzy Wyn-Thomas. You write a book and are naive enough to go to a shiny new publishing company. Presumably you do not have an agent because they would have advised you better. They publish and promote your book on the understanding that they run this little competition alongside it. When the competition fails, they refund all the copies sold, does this come out of your pocket or theirs? You are so distraught that you do not proceed with your planned second novel and are never heard of again, despite the current furore. The End.