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.

I agree the packs, certainly the light green one, look they could be for shorter trips. But it's very hard to tell and RW may have worked out she could reduce her pack contents after the first bit of walk. I just think it's too hard to conclude anything.

There's been a bit of discussion on these threads about whether it matters whether Raymoth embarked on and completed the 630mile SWCP in one go. Let's say they just took 5 weeks to walk from Minehead to Lands End in 2013 and then did the rest in dribs and drabs over the next 3 years. Does it really matter? Does it really matter if they embellished real encounters, distorted reality and claimed to have undertaken a 630 mile walk along the SWCP in 2013-4 when they didn't. Can't we allow a certain amount of artistic licence?

Call me traditional, but I believe that if you are claiming to write an unflinchingly honest travelogue, it has to be exactly that. You can't airdrop subsequent walks into the narrative and claim it was part of the same tapestry. You have to have a clear dividing line between truth and fiction. if the story doesn't stack up based on the true narrative of what actually happened, then you can't simply distory the narrative. At that point it becomes fiction.

In 2021 I walked from Wiltshire to the Swiss Alps to raise money to repair the roof of the church in our village. I'd originally planned to continue to Rome but had to return to the UK after 2 months on the road (wild camping and staying with pilgrim host families on the Via Francigena. I wrote up my walk into a 300 page account of what happened but decided to take it no further for the very simple reason that having taken a break in the middle, that seemed to invalidate the whole concept of the enterprise (walking from St Peter's Church in Winterbourne Stoke to St Peter's Rome)

I also thought what insights and angles can I add to the journey that haven't already been explored by others who have walked from Canterbury to Rome? The answer was, not very much! I wasn't willing to embellish the truth to spice up the narrative. That was a red line for me and for the travel writer (Harry Bucknall) whom I met before I set out on the walk.

His thoughts on the TSP controversy struck a chord with me, and I'm sure he won't resent me quoting them here. (PS His next book is due out next March!)

Non-fiction still requires an author to tell a story; sometimes for the narrative it is permissible to shape events to improve the read, but I think it all boils down to one simple principle, which is, tell the truth.

So the door on this tent opens from both sides (a zip follows the seam up from either side from ground level). Let me find another pic and that should/might help.

RW certainly claims it's the same tent as it finally gives way towards the end of LL, with much mourning about how it's seen them through almost all their life changing walks

Honestly @Catwith69lives if you were to self publish this on Kindle and make it available on Amazon, I'd read it. Charge 99p or something. You could give the money to the church maintenance fund if that made you feel better about it. I haven't read any other accounts of walking from the UK to Rome so it will be new to me!

Does this help?

I think there are some possibilities as well as the film. Firstly they saw the consultant in February 2025 to get a view on any link between CBS and the recent cardiac diagnosis (was that diagnosis related to the London Marathon/to stress from what they were doing?). Secondly they saw the consultant because they know the importance of creating a paper trail should they need any evidence of illness (for reasons good or bad).

I was very pleased to hear from them

Sometimes you have to read between the lines with letters and reports. That is a way of phrasing something I've seen before and used myself, when a conversation has needed to be steered in a certain way to get a message across to the person you are writing about, and to get it in writing that this issue has been covered. I could of course be wrong with this letter however.

As I understand it, it is possible that the consultant works between two hospitals and it is possible that he is the book reviewer.

Ah yes, I see what you mean. Could just be the angle of the Queen Adelaide’s photo that makes it look different then. That said I’m now sceptical about absolutely everything.

Therein lies a tale... (which I won't bore you with) but would probably donate all proceeds to PSPA! Need to polish the first draft though!

I wrote a daily 2,000 word blog while walking (including one day when I took a wrong turn and ended up walking 51 kim/32 miles!) , so you can fact check the narrative!

“Oh what a tangled web we weave
When first we practice to deceive…”

was that diagnosis related to the London Marathon/to stress from what they were doing?

They never seem to discuss their planned physically demanding activities in these consultant appointments; at least, only after the fact. In spite of RW repeatedly saying that the only advice TW was given for his condition was 'be careful on the stairs'

Only just got around to looking at The One Show clip. She is saccharine nicey nicey and artificial. What a phoney. But I did think from that one tiny clip of Moth he did seem as if he was struggling a little but could have been nerves.

Rightly so. I began to doubt myself too. I'll need to revisit the images I was looking at to double check later! It's always possible mistakes were made.

I hope you're not suggesting that these threads are going to go on for another two years?! They are already about 12,900 posts and a month longer than I anticipated! 🙃

Well, Moth's still here 12 years on, so I think we should aim for similar unbelievable longevity 😂

Did you get the impression he was reading from notes and sticking to 'the script'? It is a while since I watched the clip but I seem to remember thinking that.

Is anyone reading the Parsons' blog and has read TSP?

I haven't read TSP but have spotted a few things on the blog that are similar to topics I feel ive seen on these threads. I may, of course, have misremembered.

One that does strike me as quite a coincidence is the mention of the Parsons meeting a man called Mal, who'd been to a swingers' party the previous night with his wife and 2 girlfriends. I immediately thought of Raymoth's unlikely encounter with "Grant".

I've added a screenshot but the original post, and photo of Mal, can be found dated 11 September 2015.

Not sure about reading but seemed a bit stilted and unsure what to say so just quickly ended it with ' thank you' to JI. Could have been struggling cognitively or could have been out of comfort zone..

I sadly can't join in the drinking game at the mo and I think if I took a shot of Oxycodone instead it would be extremely erm unwise. 😂

Does it matter if the walk was done in one hit or in several?

If the books were about the SWCP (etc), then no, I don't think it would matter.

But they focus heavily on the curative effect of long distance walking. They are very specific that it's that cumulative effect that is helping TW; attempts to repicate with other exercise, in the gym or simply doing the wok on Polly's shed, don't have the same effect.

They have never claimed that TW has been helped by a series of day walks spread out over a long period of time. The claim is that it's the intensity and continuity of long distance walking that has woven the magic.

Extremely erm unwise or not, I think you need to send a bit of that Oxycodone my way if I'm being expected to contemplate Thread 14, never mind 2 more years. 🙃

Sorry, MISTAKES WERE MADE...by me

The land appears to be the majority of the pasture, but it changed ownership to Bill Cole and a company. The pasture has been split from the farm (supported by plans on the planning application website). The last change of ownership for the farm and orchards is Bill Cole's purchase in 2011.

Oddly ‘Swingers’ went through my mind when I read the Grant episode & I can imagine Raymoth lifting others tales, etc.

I agree. The idea of the continuous long distance walk is intertwined with the diagnosis (and the homelessness). A series of sporadic day walks of shorter trips would just make the point of walking the SWCP irrelevant (for this narrative of redemption) It was a long journey in response to homelessness, which inadvertently appeared to improve Moth's health against Dr's advice. Without the long journey, there's not really anything to hang the other two things on.

I thought this when I started reading. Some of the stories seem familiar. Although I supposed they are of the same basic topic but even the bit out of minehead and trying to pitch tent. Plus repeated mentions of toilet activity which is usually left unsaid.

which you don’t have to find by searching by the way. Just follow the links from RW IG which may be how CH did it?