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.

But the blurb for book 4 talks about Moth facing inevitable decline which she can't accept so she goes off on contemplative holiday walk.

A 2015 walk would imply that the SA schtick, Aug 25 TMS on the radio, Beowulf recital in St Ives, Iolanthe at the Minack and the Grant fandango was complete b-s!

@OpenThatWindow Well, I thought this was an implausible, retrospective, back story to give more weight to the awful reason she had done this by herself.

At about 26.56 Ray to Michael Portillo ‘in your tiny way’ you’ll find out what it’s like to do some of walk. Michael lives a ‘hugely material life’ you see.

Interesting language from Ray here material things ‘forcibly taken away’ & sticks to script on dispute with friend, etc.

Also instructs people not to rest in obvious places as will never make climbs. Challenge selves. If I was guessing from clip I’d almost assume Ray made climb alone .

I'm coming at it more the other way around. What if the book was written any time in the early 2000's? Or at least the outline was. Written, looked over by a publisher and/or agent and SW was told that it was good, that they would publish it 'one day', but that it needed a bit of a rework to appeal to the public. A 'hook'. Because as it was it was just a travelogue. And then there was the whole business with the house and SW thought 'hang on, if I can spin this I can get it into the book and buy some sympathy.' Plus Moth wasn't well, so with a bit of a massage of those facts and some up to date photos for publicity purposes - book is ready to go... Might explain why it didn't take long to bring out - because the publisher had already seen it and the agent had already done revisions on it. They just needed the 'hook' to make it marketable.

Someone in a review said popping back to get copy of Beowulf made no sense given where they were camping, a long way apparently & not easy terrain. Or something like that.

I think that's exactly what she's done - bullshitted - planted lie upon lie within the book(s).

This is exactly what I've been thinking. You've probably got more chance of winning the lottery than having the kind of publishing success Salray has had. And it's almost equally down to chance. Bestsellers can't be planned - there is no foolproof formula. So in terms of why she wrote a book, money is very unlikely to have been an incentive (as the fiasco of Dal dy Dir must have taught her).

I think only Raymoth will ever know the truth of whether the illness was retrofitted to the walk. As for the embezzlement as the underlying reason for the homelessness ,her publisher would seem to think this is perfectly fine.

Yes absolutely, it definitely could have been a draft of a fiction novel re-worked; that would fit the somewhat fast publishing timeline too.

So in terms of what she wrote about the cafe owner etc - yes, it's appalling. But I very much doubt she expected 2 million people to read it, so she was unlikely to think there would be any consequences. Which doesn't let her off the hook, of course.

@FurryHappyKittens
Very belatedly I've realised I got the terminology mixed up when thinking SW might have been training as a 'law clerk' which seems to be a much higher qualification than I thought it was 🤦🏻‍♀️
What I meant was a legal clerk / paralegal / court clerk or similar - apparently the terminology is different from country to country - because I could imagine SW getting some form of on-the-job-training for that when working in a court (and then amping it up as a 'law degree' for the podcast).

But in that case the 2004 BBC article that refers to her as a 'law clerk' is also wrong - or rather she was embellishing her credentials just like TW about his 'botany degree'.

A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant roles in the formation of case law through their influence upon judges' decisions.[1][2]
Judicial clerks should not be confused with legal clerks (also called "law clerks" in Canada), court clerks, or courtroom deputies who only provide secretarial and administrative support to attorneys and/or judges. (Wikipedia)

I'd say money, especially 'easy' money, would be a huge incentive for her, given her embezzlement history.

Interestingly, narcissist types tend to believe they are Very Special People Indeed and more likely to think themselves deserving/likely to win the lottery or other 'lucky' things - they are in their own ego-filled worlds.

I disagree. Either she did the walk in 2013 as described in TSP and retrofitted the CBD narrative after initial tentative CBS/CBD diagnosis in 2015 OR she embarked on the walk in Aug 2015 and retrofitted the 2013 date markers. Its binary. You have eye witnesses from 2013 or from 2015. Simple as that.

This struck a note with me. I’m roughly Sally’s age. Back in the early 90s I went into the cafe at Mullion and do remember a curt man serving. I can’t recall if he was outright rude or not, but I do remember him being abrupt. Enough for to remember after all these years - for various life reasons I’ve not made it back to Mullion since the 90s.

Chloe H has also spoken with at least some of the people who met Raymoth - Tadge, for example. Hopefully they might remember when Raymoth did the walk, or have records of that?

Even if you had some encouraging words a few years back, the chances of getting published are incredibly slim. There are a few highly visible successful nature/wild camping/walking books in the shops but what we don't see is the thousands that have been rejected.

I'm in contact with somebody who knew Moth when he worked at the NT property in N Wales in the early 90s. He seems open to discussion. Any questions you'd like to ask?

I’m beginning to surmise they didn’t do ALL the walk implied but used guidebook sometimes to imagine. I also think they’d possibly done stretches many years before, plausible as into this sort of thing & used real memories of previous visits when they did so NB: Mullion cafe recount. There was a man running/working years prior.

In the Portillo interview they’d have to have stopped when Moth needed it why suggest push on as per military training, resting for wimps etc. Off record to Jason Issacs they spoke about Moth’s private agony & need for constant massage. Etc.

Did Moth claim to have a degree in Botany?

Did he have extensive knowledge that suggested he did have a degree in Botany?

Weren’t they living at Haye Farm during the Pandemic?

How long did he work there, why did they move? Any backstory. Friendly, open, charismatic or otherwise?

This assumes that the walk began in Aug 2013 as described in TSP. What if it began in Aug 2015 in response to a tentative diagnosis of indolent atypical CBS/CBD in June 2015?

I think what i was trying to say was that if the 2015 diagnosis was retrofitted to the 2013 walk ( as many of us suspect) it can never be revealed because only Raymoth and consultant will ever know the truth. We will never find out.

She’d lost everything & was 100 per cent focused. Powerful friends or contacts? Before it went wrong both were apparently hugely likeable & Moth has wowing charisma. Apparently.

You’re of course quite correct, though.