Thread 14: 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 13 Observer items currently available on their online 'The real Salt Path' page: The real Salt Path | The Observer

3 more from The Observer:

‘Hope is extinguished’: CBD patients respond to Salt Path...

The real Salt Path | The Observer (The Slow Newscast)

‘We thought: it can’t be the Salt Path couple – they’d ha...

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?

Thread 13: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5386458-thread-13-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 16 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 thirteen 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.

Are we all becoming Hyperglycaemic from all the fudge?
Have shares in Cadbury's gone up?
Can we remain cheerful in the face of such shameless glumwashing?
Will I need to fill up with much petrol this thread for the drive-by scoldings?
Will our Chloe H get exclusive interviews with the disgruntled peregrine, tortoise and Hollywood rabbits?
What has our Simon A got to say about this, preferably in verse?

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

But do they profess to be "unflinchingly honest"?

No they don’t.

I agree, and I think it’s fine - within reason - to get inspired by other works if you’re writing a fictional book.

However, I don’t think that argument holds here, because this is meant to be a non-fictional, autobiographical story about RW’s life and individual experiences.

Isn’t it a bit suspicious and just too conveniently coincidental that random sections of it are extremely similar - right down to the phrasing and specific events - to a previously published book about the same topic?

I think this is worth digging into further.

It's available to read online for free at Internet Archive. You need to sign up for an account, but it's free to 'borrow'.

https://archive.org/details/500milewalkies00wall

ETA -- am just reading the beginning (in case anyone is trying to 'borrow' my IA copy, I will be going to make dinner in a few minutes and will 'return it!), and am already laughing, as he's being quite funny about there being no reason whatsoever for him to do this walk, which isn't original, other people have walked it and written about it, he's not trying to break records, or escape from something, or find something deep within. No, he concludes, he's doing it to impress a girl he met at a party, even though he's been telling his friends he's going to walk it for years and never does.. But he's been thrown out of his flat, and he's unemployed, and his friends have lent him equipment, and his sister's ex is paying him to take his unwanted dog with him.

Thanks!

Thanks. Thought so. I wonder if she also has issues with her memory! Or was flustered/stressed talking to the Aussie guy and misspoke.

And it shouldn't need inspiration of what to write (let alone fabricated stories) if they undertook a walking journey.

This comment is on Professor Tim Wilson's YouTube channel when he's discussing The Salt Path:

"We have a friend who was Tim's best mate at school. While they were supposedly walking they kept in touch and Tim Walker was very upbeat about everything and kept saying they were fine. Well now you can see why they were fine, because they were not fully walking the path, they still had plenty of money and they still had a property in France so were not technically homeless.. Tim is now claiming that Liverpool University are studying his illness but is this just another lie to try to prove he is ill??"

Not sure if this has been shared. Dropped on YouTube an hour ago

Ah ha, that's how you do it, thanks to both of you 😊

I'm sure that Liverpool uni (and many others) would love to study TWs miraculous cure for an incurable disease. I've no problem believing that.

However, I thought their phone was frequently forgotten about or dead when they were doing TSP? So how, I wonder, did he keep in regular touch with a friend? (If indeed that's true, of course).

Yes, I think medical researchers would love to study Timoth's experience of CBD.

Exactly! 😂

Since we have been reviewing TSP, I have thought about how it was approached. We have these huge backstories which set a very different tone from 500 Mile Walkies - which is unashamedly one huge joke.

I imagined Paddy open, someone's nature diary open, 500 Mile Walkies to consult, the Simon Armitage running gag...

To be honest, because 500MW was written 40 years ago, there are also different things. But, it is incredible how there are these obvious echoes .....

Is it possible they were subconscious? Things RW perhaps remembered from the walking and wrote them down later not realising the memories were actually from her reading of 500MW?

Are there any similarities to be found with Paddy Dillon's book?

Agreed.

I kind of agree and disagree. If SW is reduced to borrowing from 500MWW to explain a peel8ng sunburnt nose, that is fairly pathetic.
However, she may well have got inspiration to walk the SWCP from the book. There is invariably a grain of truth in all her anecdotes. Translating this into the sighting of the long forgotten book in the packing case as the bailiffs hammered on the door is reflective of her MO - massive embellishment. The court judgement of eviction occurred in Feb 2013, the actual repossesion in June/July 2013 and they fled the house ( according to a 3rd party witness) at 2am before the baliffs arrived at 9am the next day.

A peeling nose probably happens to everyone walking a long distance, at some point. It’s the other experiences which aren’t universal, being found in both books which is interesting.

I wonder why their income from the WTC’s they weren’t entitled to suddenly dropped from £48/£40 to £25 (if it did)

Apologies if this has been posted before. Mistakes etc. The latest couple of comments are in sharp contrast to previous ones. It is readbyraworth (Sophie Raworth):
Instagram

To go back to the taking of GCEs/CSEs - I remember my school did a special trial combined exam for English. We had to submit an example of various genre of writing. So pupils lifted them from magazines, passages from books, etc., but subtly changed a few things, wrote sentences in a different order, etc.

The passages I shared remind me strongly of these exercises!

Thanks for finding and posting this @FlyAgaricc

Again, it is so important for the ordinary, real people and the local businesses the Walker/Winns have misrepresented and hurt to be given a voice.

Mistakes were made...

The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe (TV Mini Series 2022) - IMDb

It’s not improbable. The consultant that appears to have written the letters is also on the faculty at Liverpool University. He is involved in research in neuroscience. TBH, I would be more surprised if he hadn’t asked Moth to take part in research!

I've got a copy of a Paddy Dillon guide which contains a highly edited version of the SWCP (over about 30 pages, so there's not a lot of detail). Anyhow, Im not grabbed by any obvious similarities between his writing and SW's

That was astonishing. To think that their children thought their father was dead.