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.

😂you have created a Phenomenon @DisappointedReader

Is there anything pressing I need to add to the OP for the next thread? Please be aware that space is limited for the OP. That is why I had to remove most of the links to previous threads this time.

Mistakes were made!

Phenomenon
The Muppets springs to mind.

Oh no, you can't blame just me. Everybody must share the responsibility and guilt.

I regret to have to inform you that you have bound your fate to the lovely Chloe 🤗, and will only be allowed stop when she does.
And she seems to be on a roll right now!

Which reminds me, do you have any predictions or hopes which revelations tomorrow might bring?
I'm sure there will be something...

Sorry, I've got the earworm too! Yes, we're all guilty, especially that Simon Armitage.

What was the tortoise reference in TSP? There's a photo of a tortoise called Claude on the blog (Post dated 13 August 2015).

Popping up to say, to me, it definately looks like Moth is reading a script on The One Show clip, his eyes are looking downwards and moving slightly from side to side at times, then he leans back from reading to say 'Not up to Jason's standard is it' as if he had been acting, very odd.

So do you think the neurologist was warning them?

The cardiac conversation semed weird to me, I wondered if they were trying to suggest-sell the idea that it could somehow confirm the CBD diagnosis? 'Look, I've got objective symptoms of something!'

Do we know when CH started her investigation? I thought the consultation/letter might be a result of her contacting them, alerting them to the need to add to the paper trail, but February seems rather early for that?

I really doubt the idea that there is one neurologist who follows them around providing letters, and who also wrote the book review.
For one, because I see no evidence beside one RD on the 2019 letter.
But mostly because if I knew a neurologist willing to write medical letters to support my case, I would want them to be far more convincing than those three.

Was it on a lead? Here's the excerpt from TSP (a blind man doing yoga begins the "prophesy" near the start. This bit happens at the end, rather conveniently to close the narrative loop.)

It had been well over a year since our encounter in the woods on the second day of our walk from Minehead; we had long since dismissed the prophecy that we would ‘walk with a tortoise’. Yet here, attached to a customized dog harness, as we neared the end of our journey, was that very thing. A tortoise, taking bites of grass and herby undergrowth, then moving on, one slow step after another.

Thread 14 looming, you've got this DisappointedReader!💪
or whatever you need!

Thank you! No lead, just a 53 year old tortoise named Claude. Probably in Falmouth and may belong to a relative of the Parsons.

@MarmiteWine & @Toomuchstufff goodness are you suggesting that TSP was written at least in part from someone else's blog. Heaven forbid ! Or should I say "what a clever Sally!" It's getting near my bedtime now (!) but last night I had a second readthrough of the Taunton to Minehead by bus then the walk proper account (at least to the first tent pitching) and concluded that whole section was fabricated. I was born and raised in Minehead and we took the children there - to visit my parents. In TSP when the couple alight from the bus they are not sure where the SWCP starts! (? what happened to their map). They appear to end up on the zig-zag path above the fishermen's cottages, which is not part of the SWCP.
I'll stop now and tomorrow have a read of the Observer and also that section of TSP before commenting further.

There's also a picture of Jo getting her hair done...
Although she of course could have mentioned it to Sally, just as Sally claimed.
Is it likely that the Parsons told Raymoth they were writing a travel blog, and its title so that Raymoth could use it for inspiration later on? I suppose so.

I'm sure Raymoth knew of the existence of the blog at the time. There's a post dated 16th August that mentions someone called Sean "who spoke highly of you Sally & Tim if you are reading this."

This was my impression too.

It's very possible. They chatted for an hour according to the article and it's obvious Jo and/or Dave were writing the blog as they went. I had considered this but hadn't read enough of the blog to see any potential similarities. This could have legs! I mean the Parsons' story about selling up etc also seems like it was an inspiration, perhaps even where the idea of TSP began?! When Jo wrote "we think we inspired each other" she may well have been right!

TW was in fact diagnosed with an atypical form of the condition SW claims he has in TSP

Please correct me if I’m wrong, but I haven’t seen anything saying TW was actually diagnosed with anything.

Fandango speculates that Moth/Tim "presumably already had symptoms" of something when the book was being written. To be fair, it does sound like on one of his walks Moth/Tim told the Australians that his legs were a bit stiff.

Holy moly, so now Raymoth may have stolen ideas from the Parsons' blog? If true, I wonder what the Parsons have got to say about that, especially as they weren't portrayed very favourably by Raymoth?

Sadly given what else we know and suspect, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it does turn out to be the case.

You couldn't make it up.

PS - meant Gouache, not Fandamgo. Apologies to both

I wonder whether Sean will also have enlightening recollections of his meeting with the dynamic duo. The plot thickens by the day.

The plot, or rather, the fudge thickens!

Now we need some Americans to pop up in CH's emails.

He is described as having symptoms. The problem for me is that none of them suggest an obvious link to a neurological issue (disclaimer: I'm not a neurologist) and in many cases they are things experienced by quite a few people of 45+ such as stiff legs, shoulder pain, headaches, inability to move joints or limbs like you used to. And as I said earlier these are self reported. The 2015 doctor's letter notes 'an abnormal posturing of the left hemi-body as he walks' - is this the lean to one side we've noticed in photos? But that letter also says that an MRI in 2011 was negative.

CBD is a diagnosis of exclusion and RW' s narrative reports the consultant effectively saying 'we've ruled everything else out so it must be this though only a postmortem will actually confirm it'. None of the letters shared state definitely that TW was diagnosed on whatever date with CBD, and it's certainly common enough for consultants' letters to clearly state what a patient was diagnosed with, when and by what means. I know someone whose letters say 'ischaematic stroke diagnosed by MRI' for instance. I'm with @Fandango52 on the lack of this for TW.

I echo this!