Thread 16: 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 14 Observer items currently available on their online 'The real Salt Path' page: The real Salt Path | The Observer

More from The Observer:
‘Hope is extinguished’: CBD patients respond to Salt Path...
The real Salt Path | The Observer (The Slow Newscast)
I will link to two more Observer videos in the first post of this thread.

The Observer YouTube Channel: The Observer UK - YouTube

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement: Raynor Winn

Thread One ^www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/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: 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: 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?

Thread 14: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5388981-thread-14-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 get the background from at least some of the Observer items above before posting. There are currently a number of 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. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea. 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 fifteen 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.

Yes, it really is Thread 16.

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

Is there a website, can you see pictures of him and do they match the description in the book?

As SalRay has a quote from The Odyssey at the beginning of TSP and seems to allude to myth like the prophesied tortoise, could Gran's beauties be the Sirens? As the WWs couldn't have known the book would do so well, maybe they weren't worried about all these classical leitmotifs being picked up as they assumed few would read it.

Love the image of SalRay trying to wash the guilt away. The photo is lovely - I've been inspired to try and go to the South West Coastal Path because of these threads. I couldn't walk the whole path due to age and not being healthy enough but would enjoy doing a bit of it. The only bit I've seen is the Somerset part of it where the WalkerWinns said they set out.

Hmm - it's not a complete slam dunk so I'm not 100% sure. There are certain aspects to the Grant episode (apart from the massage episode with the bevvy of beautiful blondes) that seem slightly odd.

One of the two lissome blondes is described as a nanny yet no children are described. Grant is encountered alone in a pair of sandals and white socks on the SWCP, some 20 mins from his wife, PA (former sports therapist) and nanny. Unusual format for a family holiday in Cornwall!

Brutal! 😀

Don't forget the rather unusual rhubarb-flavoured lollies too. Has anyone ever encountered such a thing? The whole episode sounds more like a fever dream.

Ah no, I found more re Margaret Cecilia Browne, will dig it out and post after tea. I don't think there's an Irish connection (but if there were, it might make the first true statement in the book!)

The SWCP is a modern concept (around 1970s) and in my view set up, in part at least, to provide a challenge for the fit and adventurous! The individual coastal tracks that make up the 600+ miles have been there for 1000s of years. So there's no reason to adhere religiously to the SWCP in order to enjoy the scenery and fresh air. (and there are some alternative routes anyway, as shown in the guidebook)
Where the shoreline is followed, that's flat of course. For anyone wishing to walk a level section at a higher altitude and who would find steep paths a challenge, the difficulty will be in getting to the level part by motorised transport.
A challenge in itself!

As the official Headless Simon Armitage correspondent, I concur.

Out, damned fudge; out, I say!

The statement that TW's brother (whose house they stayed at for 2 weeks after eviction) lived 20 miles away from Pwllheli checks out. I think there was another true statement that was verified recently but I can't recall it now...lost in the mire and the bramble patch.

I remember Zoom, Fab , Mivvi and Orange Maid lollies from when I was growing up in the 70s, Rhubarb custard sweets, rhubarb and custard cartoons but no rhubarb ice lollies. Maybe times have moved on!

OK, here goes.

Timothy Walker's Irish grandparents -- hmm.

when Timmoth was born, his mother's maiden name was given as Browne.

His mother, k/a Margaret Cecilia Walker (after her marriage) is actually in the 1939 census as Mary Cecilia Scott. The scanned entry was overwritten to change her name to Margaret Cecilia Browne with an addendum saying "adoption" and the date of 25.8.1949. It has a further name change to Walker shown separately (for many years, the 1939 register was kept up to date with name changes in this way).

She is shown with her mother, Cecilia Mary Browne, and one other person whose name has been redacted, at an address in Burton.

I think Margaret's mother Cecilia married William Scott in Burton in 1937; her maiden name was Holton. (Cecilia M Holton b 1917, Burton). Margaret C Scott's birth (mother's maiden name Holton) was registered in Burton in 1938. The age has been poorly written in the 1939 register and looks like 1935.

I can't see any deaths for William Scott in Staffordshire in the relevant timeline and I'm not convinced that Cecilia Mary Holton/Scott/Browne actually married Mr Browne; it appears though that Timmoth's mother was adopted by her mother's partner/husband and took the Browne name several years after she was born.

So the bottom line is that Margaret Cecilia Browne b 1938, appears in the relevant register as Mary Cecilia Scott b 1935 -- so it's not surprising that her birth has been a bit elusive!

Another odd thing was these were the only things left in stock if I recall. I'm not even sure it was an actual ice-cream van or just a random white transit van & man.

aha, I'll let Timmoth off the hook ! (Sorry!)

His great grandfather,Michael Joseph Holton, was from Ireland!!

1948 - Cecilia Mary Scott was granted a divorce from her husband, William Scott, on the grounds of desertion. (Maybe the fact that she'd been living with another man and using his name for a good number of years went the way of the Salt Path -- But then again, William Scott died a few years later by which time he'd gained another wife too). And he was originally from Falkirk, not Ireland.

I can elaborate with what i found previously.

My notes agree that Margaret's mother Cecelia Holton first married William Scott in 1937. They had Margaret (Tim's mother) in 1938.

Cecelia then remarried to a Victor Browne in 1948, and Margaret was adopted with the Browne name.

Cecelia and Victor went on to have other children, so half-siblings of Margaret. One of them was the half-uncle relation of TW who gave the £100k loan and passed it on to his creditors (I.e Cooper or at least a big element of the Cooper character.)

That sounds very sophisticated.

At the cove that inspired Rebecca's beach house - Pridmouth. The younger Rashleighs (the landowners) leave an ice box with ice lollies. There is then an honesty box or you are given the details of one of their bank accounts to pay!

I don't think the Walkers went past there!

Moving on up -- William Scott (TW's real grandfather) worked in an iron foundry, but Victor Browne (TWs stepgrandfather) was a housebuilder - as in, it was his company building houses ("Messrs Victor Browne Ltd") , he wasn't "just a builder".

Interview about LL. She does not look a happy bunny.

She's clearly reading from something just to the right of the camera. It could hardly sound less spontaneous.

and when did she last claim that she never said that walking is a cure?! Though this time she's careful not to give a diagnosis!

Thanks @whodareswinns. I'd have liked to read comments on the video l, but none are shown - are they disabled? (PS: asking about the comments, not the Walker's.)

Why would you say someone had took you for a poet just because you look similar to an Irish relative?
was his Irish grandad Oscar Wilde?
Are all Irish people poets?
Are all poets Irish?

Can you remind me please where and when the miserable photo of SW is from @WhoDaresWinns ? It has to be said that he looks the more chipper of the two of them.

Thank you for posting the video @WhoDaresWinns …. I agree it sounds scripted but it also sounds like an author speaking about a work of fiction.