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.

Now that I've said we're also going to the Minack, I think a sulk fest has been averted.

Excellent. I think we should invite Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs to revisit their roles. It would be cathartic for them.

I think you're onto something with the crooked teeth, which I'd not noticed at all. It's a lovely photo, RW/SW looks so happy, interestingly she's kept her Instagram open, why would she delete this photo? Because she's seen it reproduced elsewhere, and doesn't like her teeth.

Certainly wish we could all have a secret sleuthing weekend somewhere😁

It's an interesting thought.

We have only one piece of textual evidence which links her notes to the narrative in TSP - the anecdote involving the American lady who is encountered after the Minack en route to Mousehole who is in search of David Cornwell's house (aka John Le Carre)

The initial premise in TSP seems a bit unlikely - an American lady in her 70s is walking the SWCP, as she has done for many years, in part to determine the location of the house of her friend David Cornwell where she used to spend idyllic summers many years ago. (er why not ask locals where he lives?)

Be that as it may, it seems pretty obvious that SW isn't a reader of The Spy Who Comes In From the Cold and hasn't a clue who John Le Carre/David Cornwell is.

However, the margin notes in Paddy Dillon's guide to the SWCP ( Mr John - who would of thought it) with a circle around where John Le Carre's house was in St Loy, suggests that maybe the incident did occur but that SW had to subsequently verify it via research and annotate it in a Paddy Dillon Guide to the SWCP (that probably wasn't the one that Moth carried in the pocket of his camo trousers during somewhat inclement weather on the SWCP)

So what's my point - there is a curious mixture of fact and fiction in TSP. It seems that some of the incidents may have occurred, but been subsequently embellished, some may have been completely invented and some may have never occurred. The dates may have also been changed and the intro (court case/CBD diagnosis) appears to be a manipulation of the chronology of what occurred.

So what can we conclude? SW is a great story teller but as an 'unflinchingly honest' non fictional travelogue it is largely BS.

Yes it's a lovely photo and she looks so animated and happy.

If you zoom right in on the curve of the last number in the SW selfie, I think there is a patch of lighter white colour, where the curve of the number would continue if it was a 5.. I am no expert, but I do wonder whether there has been a bit of judicious touching up on photoshop, to remove 2 years..!

Paddy Dillon's SWCP annotated 2013 guide book which include the comments about the American 'Elisabeth' in search of David Cornwell and 'Mr John' = who would of thought it.

She’s very well read & these up her street NB: recent reading: novel of WW2 escapee POW.

It's so hard to pin it. But good observation. Personally, it looks to be 2013. But certainly cropping it would make such an edit much easier. And if the photo was taken as it is, why not take a better one to get the sign in? Maybe they weren't fussed. Or tired, cold and wet. As with many things Raymoth, it only raises more questions than answers.

I think as they've cropped it anyway, if it wasn't 2013, then they'd have cropped it that little bit more and not left that potential for it being spotted to be wrong.

After all, they didn't have any reason to suppose anyone would be looking at it and wondering about the year, so no questions would be asked about it being cropped.

I would agree with this. I imagine they know people close to them who could help, or of course there are myriad video tutorials online, so that even the greatest technophobes can manipulate digital images with ease.

“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

So why did SW include this cropped image with her chipped teeth and half of the image of Moth, the love of her life,on her IG feed and then remove it?

I've actually got another idea on why, since I'm already speculatively psychologizing...
A while ago I had this idea that some pictures of Raymoth and the TSP actors look as if Tim is smooching up to Gillian Anderson (picture 1), and that must have made Sally unhappy, since she already has this envy of younger women that might interest her holy hubby more.
Given that, it must be extra hard standing right next to the woman portraing a more beautiful version of yourself anyway (picture 2) and who has such a dazzling smile (picture 3).

I would assume that it could be viewed as ‘evidence’ that the walk (and heavily sun-burnt and peeling nose) occurred in 2013, but then SW might have got a bit worried about the forensic level of detailed analysis being applied to absolutely everything, so has had to remove anything that might provide more meat for the scandal (eg any photos that may show items that are not likely to have been there, or of anything that has been photoshopped etc etc..)

I love this 😂😂

For some context I found the caption for the photo:

Raynor Winn on Instagram: "Day 15 - Half way through #nationalwalkingmonth and we've reached Land's End with a very bad selfie on an awful day. But so happy to have made it so far.
#walking #southwestcoastpath
#nationalwalkingmonth #landsend
#walkingformentalhealth"

(Date of post deduced to be 15 May 2019 as it slots in between other posts on RW's IG feed regarding national walking month, during which she posted other photos from the 2013/4 walk, some which have also disappeared in past few weeks)

Why do you think she deleted this IG post?

I’m going back to TWS (sorry for deviating away from the fascinating photo theories!)

So… they take on the cider farm (NB there is no shortage of snobbery from I’m-too-good-for-a-council-house-SalRay about the peach walls and the plastic windows). And then some local kids vandalise it and paint SCUM on the walls. I find what happens next really interesting. SalRay jumps to the conclusion that the words are aimed at herself and TimMoth - “They must have read the book!”

OK, so Theory 1 is that a group of local kids read TSP (lol), were horrified by RayMoth’s homelessness and decided to respond with graffiti. 🤣
Theory 2 is that this incident was made up, as per usual.
Theory 3 is that the graffiti existed but was coincidental.
Theory 4 is that SCUM really was aimed at RayMoth and was nothing to do with homelessness but everything to do with the embezzlement.

I have no idea if any of this really happened. She is the most unreliable of unreliable narrators.

You are probably right - if you have nothing to hide, why remove/hide stuff? Bit of a giveaway and a bit stupid. Par for the course.

I listen to the version of TSP narrated by the actress Anne Reid. That was the version I downloaded years ago and I have listened to it many times. This year I downloaded the version narrated by RaySal (don't ask me why) ... tried to listen to it but it grates on my nerves.

I agree the Anne Reid version is so much better.

I've found a photo on Facebook of the Lands End sign on 11 September 2013 if anyone wants to compare to Raymoth's photo.

I've cropped it to remove the people in the photo but happy to provide the link if needed for verification purposes.

Having recently been to a graduation celebration I have been wondering why there was no mention of Timoth's graduation/Celebration in the books? Either in 2017 if he did an HND or 2018 if he did the BSC? Was he a drop out? Looked online for any photos or results and was also puzzled why the Chelsea student project photos all state he was from Snowdonia when they had left Wales 3 years previously? Was this a student finance thing? As Welsh students (those living in Wales before starting the course) and studying in England can get a Maintenance grant rather than a loan and I believe at that time a Welsh Government Learning grant as well.