Thread 17: 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)
Links to more Observer videos can be found in an early post of this new thread and here: Observer YouTube Channel: The Observer UK - YouTube
Working timeline and references: can be found in early posts of this new Thread 17.
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?
Threads 13-14: Links in the OP of Thread 15
Thread 15:Thread 15: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
Thread 16: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5395002-thread-16-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 are welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from at least some of the Observer items above before posting.
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 sixteen 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 17. I'm as in need of smelling salts as the next person.

We seek them here, we seek them there, mumsnetters seek them everywhere: just where are the elusive How not to Dal dy Dir and On Winter Hill?

#handwavium #appropriation

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

@HatStickBoots What she is trying to claim is a miracle of biblical proportions and is presenting herself as a saint for being the one to cure him.

"moving out in the fields all day – his health has improved almost miraculously, just as it did when we were walking the Coast Path."

or, maybe

In pastures green
She leadeth me, the quiet waters by

I seriously think you are correct.

I also seem to remember Bill Cole being pretty pissed off at the misrepresentation of their role on Rick Steins Cornwall programme, demonstrating the traditional cider making process, equipment etc, when in fact they had never been involved in the cider making

*I mean it’s the total brass neck of it- unbelievable. They must have known that BC would watch that programme and think- WTF???

I wonder how that played out then. I wonder if BC was contacted about the filming or the WWs? (Had there been an earlier recording?). Did the tv company want the Winns filmed because she was the author of TSP, did they know they didn't actually make the cider?

Why are there always more questions?

The “ I’m dying imminently “ declaration from TW was a classic dead cat on the table response when he thought he was going to be questioned by BC about why they were neglecting the farm and the misrepresentation of their role in the cider making on the Rick Stein programme.

Did someone say on here that the crew had made a second visit for more footage or something? I don’t have access to the iPlayer, but I happened accidentally to see that programme when it aired. I had read TSP, and recognised ‘Raynor and Moth’, and thought ‘Oh, interesting — that’s what they do now’, but my main memory is how sort of stilted and awkward it all looked.

Which of course makes sense if they never made cider and can have had no idea what they were talking about.

Returning to the thread after spending a couple of days doing a lot of walking. I had a sore leg when I came back, but rest and lots of tea sorted it out, so I'm now thinking of starting a Wellness Retreat based on my experience of self-healing.
I shall encourage all participants to sit down and have a brew, maybe a chocolate digestive, with possible group chanting of 'ow, that bloody hurts, pour us another cup, love.'

I find it really bizarre that the pair of them agreed to take part in a hugely popular program on national television. Did they think no one would call them out? Did they not consider what BCs response would be? Did they not consider the consequences.? It’s not as if they were forced into it. Considering the lies they’ve told, most people might think it judicious to lie low, do the publicity they( actually only SW) were contractually bound to do, and no more. I find it very very strange. Did they think they were untouchable?

If you are mimicking SW then it should be duck not love (we do use love but duck is more authentic as said by the nurse in TWS)

Totally agree! As I said several times, I cannot understand why they risked any kind of publicity. OK so SW had no idea, at least initially, that TSP would become a best seller. But the possibility was always there.
Perhaps SW found it easier to "compulsively lie" via the written word rather than the spoken word. After the undoubted success of TSP (in deceiving readers into accepting that it was largely a true account) she went on to produce 2/3 more novels on similar lines.

I wasn't mimicking SW, as I've not read her books! But if you thought I was, it just goes to show how easy it is to write that kind of tripe.

Re the lying in the grass with TW pondering on the work it takes to run a farm - they could always have just rented the grassland for grazing to nearby farmers. I know a few 'hobby farmers' and most of those are rich people who've bought farms for the house, which they live in. They have a paddock for a few cosmetic cute animals and they just rent the rest out - local farmers upkeep the land for them. So all the agonising and 'we can't afford the stock and the equipment' would be largely unnecessary. Even if they just rented it for hay, which would fit in with the rewilding.

A grifter is an endlessly fascinating species. They operate at a level quite apart from the rest of society. It must be quite nice to believe oneself to be utterly blameless at every turn even in matters of appalling deceit ( embezzlement).

She would have been contractually bound to do some publicity, and was possibly advised by her publishers that there was such an interest in them as a couple, that they would be better able to control the narrative/ brand and stop unwanted press invasion if they did a certain number of appearances, especially after the film was in the pipeline. But it still seems to me that a lot of their lies were completely gratuitous and didn’t serve any purpose- they seemed totally oblivious to the fact that it was obviously going to catch up with them at some point.

Yes, I do believe they did think they were untouchable. With the non disclosure thing in the distant past and a bit of tweaking with reality. Nobody wants to question the validity of a dying man or the seemingly irrational decisions made by a wife so madly in love, so desperate not to lose the love of her life. People love the idea of romance. I have no idea how they managed to portray the art of cider making whilst never having done any. They must have crammed on Wiki the night before or Cider production for dummies.

But why? What was the purpose? Why add to the untruths when they’d be so easily found out? For example, they could easily have said to Rick Steins producers that they only tended the orchards, someone else produced the cider. They must have known that BC and presumably lots of locals would see the program and know for a fact that they were misrepresenting themselves.

Or maybe they’re both just really, really thick😳

I know… it’s so typical of that type of person though. Just to “wing it”, cashing in on their fame and loving the money and attention. I must see if this is still available to watch. I don’t understand it either. They just have no shame whatsoever. If anyone did know the truth, they obviously just kept their mouths shut because they’re so “nice”, I imagine. Who is going to call out a terminally ill man who charms everyone and a feisty, protective wife who portrays herself as such an underdog? Aside from that…. I really don’t know… except that it’s what con merchants do 😕

I'm pleased to see that the thread has come back to life. Like TW.

Not sure if the link is working, but it’s Rick Steins Cornwall, series 3, episode 2. BBC iPlayer

Still available to watch (cringe)

I read somewhere that the locals didn’t like them that much,

Thanks. Just watched a bit of the cider making. It's the only time I've seen Moth talking (only on radio before) - he does seem really pleasant.

Had to switch off when SalRay starts moving around the stage though. That's going too far for me ....

Or just make tracks again when people start getting too close.
A lot of the narrative in her second book is set up to explain to the reader in a confidential tone that she is terribly shy and introverted and struggling with social interaction. This just conveniently hides the truth that they didn't want anyone to know the real them.

Oh I’d forgotten that… well no wonder it was another quick getaway… key left under mat and death beckoning after Christmas. I can’t believe anybody wanting to say such a thing! But then of course Ray cures him, so hallelujah etc

And although their company Four Hares was originally listed at Companies House as a cider maker it morphed into a creative company through which RW's earnings could be passed in I daresay a tax efficient manner.