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.

There's nothing wrong with socks, especially nice clean fresh ones 😁

I also noticed the derogatory dog incidents.

Then they adopted Monty, who of course was the handicapped runt of the litter

Re SA loved the anecdote related above ( sorry forget which poster) where SA'S Dad calls him back to collect his handcrafted walking stick ' Eh, Moses! You forgot your staff!' . Perfect example of Yorkshire wit. We do like to take people down a peg or two.

Similarly, many many years ago well before dogs were allowed everywhere I walked into a very remote pub in the Dales with my scruffy old terrier. Silence fell. Group of farmers at the bar only customers. They all swivelled around to look at me so I said ' Erm, is my dog alright in here?' Cue much exaggerated leaning and staring as if judging at a livestock show. ' Aye, expect so. It's still got four legs hasn't it?'

"The effect of the suggestion that Moth has made up this condition has been absolutely traumatising for him. Suggestions made by people, who do not know him, have never met him, and have never seen his medical records. But even worse, is the effect on those sufferers who have looked to Moth as a beacon of hope."

Hang on a minute...am I reading this wrongly or is SalRay trying to blame the people who've called her out on the TSP farrago for genuine, terminally-ill CBD sufferers now no longer believing that long distance walking might cure them? That somehow it's our fault that they no longer have hope?

Is that what's she's saying here?

Yeah, so it's bad that her lies about Moth have been exposed because that is hurtful for people who believed the lies? Wow

On the subject of which, I hope you're recovering @Pissenlit it still sounds like you're really unwell. Scruffy teenagers, hm. A good friend has her sons back at home, into 20s and both have very good degrees and MAs but tidiness somehow eludes them. The words "bring back National Service" have been heard to issue from her usually liberal mouth.

(Pissenlit takes heavily to the cider)

Yes it is @Vroomfondleswaistcoat that's exactly what she is saying, maybe she should have gone into politics :)

In the Gulf Times piece, SW says: "it’s increasingly being proven that physical activity, long walks, can help people with the type of disease Moth has." Is this correct?

I hadn't really paid attention to her 'generalised justification' before, but reading this bit in isolation has made me incredibly angry. How DARE she stand up and say that it's the fault of people who are pointing out how wrong the whole thing is that other people, seriously ill people, are now losing hope?

How DARE she?

I've been quietly making a lot of assumptions about her being just a bit of a grifter, but this paragraph goes beyond the grift and into trying to deflect blame from her unambiguous assertions that Moth had CBD and walking 'cured' him. And that is very, very wrong.

Budge up, @Pissenlit , I need a lie down to deal with my ire.

Oh, and stop hogging the Strepsils.

Raynor Winn has 80.8k IG followers and has sold 2mn+ copies of TSP. I suspect that despite CH's forensic journalistic exposés, there remain a significant core of faithful who either don't want to believe or don't care about the veracity of the Observer allegations for all manner of reasons, primarily being the fact that they enjoyed TSP and aren't really bovvered about whether it was fact or fiction.

I suspect (although I have no proof) that this is how cult leaders behave when under attack. Cult followers only require some degree of affirmation that the 'leader' is being unfairly attacked in order to maintain their adherence.

From the Gulf Times piece shared by @Catwith69lives (thank you)

But it’s increasingly being proven that physical activity, long walks, can help people with the type of disease Moth has.’

By whom, Salray? What eminent neurology department or research team has confirmed this?

With talks about the book being considered for a movie, I ask her who she would like to portray her on screen.
Raynor laughs softly. ‘Kate Winslet,’ she says, ‘and my favourite actor Greg Wise as Moth.’

OK. Maybe the film could have had her charging through the Atlantic axe in hand to rescue Timoth from the watery end their bad choice of campsite had condemned him to.

I also wonder how many of her cult followers didn't actually read the justification any further than the 'waa waa, unfounded allegations, boo hoo, no proof, waaah MY MENTAL HEALTH'. I afraid this is what I was guilty of, basically skim reading and thinking 'yeah yeah, you've been caught and and you know it.' And now I'm looking at her ACCUSING HER ACCUSERS of what SHE has been doing, and I didn't notice it before.

In psychotherapy, this type of behaviour is known as 'transference'. V damaging to those who don't realise that they are targets/victims of such behsviour.

I’ve taken to hot port, given that Nurofen Cold and Flu and Strepsils (you may have them al!) don’t seem to have the slightest effect. Which means I feel exactly the same level of ill, but also slightly tiddled, so notice it less. The same may work for Walker-related ire.😀

Laughing also means my ribs hurt so one of my Post-Its says DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH. Which of course means my lovely boy keeps coming in with ever worse knock knock jokes.

I used to work for one of Gulf News’ rival papers (briefly, years ago, on a brief, ill-fated sojourn in the UAE), and while I would say it’s not a font of quality journalism (look at all the weird non-sequiturs — we never hear what the owner of the dog says to SW, and that anecdote about it being the lowest moment of her life would make zero sense to someone who hadn’t read the book), so it’s possible some stuff is just journalist error or mis-transcription, some of it suggests SW is peddling a broader than usual version of her narrative. Moth has a couple of months to live.There’s precisely a week between her first email to her agent and signing a contract. She wants Kate Winslet and Greg Wise to play them in the film.

I thought it was quite weird SW is ‘reluctant to reveal where she and Moth are now lest it be a spoiler for those yet to read her book’! The article was published in July 2022, so they’re living on the coder farm, with LL coming out in hardback in September. So why the coyness?

Slight change of tack.

SW's IG feed suggests that she and Moth went to Iceland in Feb 2017. This at a time when they were supposed to be as poor as church mice living on a student grant, before the TSP royalties started rolling in.

The Iceland jaunt with D&J didn't happen until Summer 2019. Thus why the bleak midwinter Iceland trip in 2017? Daylight hours would have been restrictive for walking or sightseeing, airfares possibly cheap, but unless you had a post Xmas urge to visit the Arctic circle and see the Northern lights, why the Iceland flit in Feb 2017?

Calling all correspondents and lurkers. Unbelievably it's that time again to fire up the old charabanc, load up with cider, fudge, scones, jam and cream in no particular order, pasties, noodles, naked hikers, various hashtags, throat lozenges hot port, cardboard Our Simon and the tenacious spirit of Our Chloe, and sail off via the car ferry to Thread 18:
Thread 18: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Gargling with salty water may be just what one or two correspondents need. We may however have to securely lash them to the charabanc roof rack to avoid the spreading of germs amongst our motley and distinguished crew.

Safe passage over.

I DONT KNOW WHERE YOUR SWIMMING TRUNKS ARE
I LOVE YOU BUT I CAN BARELY BREATHE AND AM NOT IRONING YOUR SCHOOL SHIRT
ASK YOUR DAD
DO WE HAVE ANY MORE TISSUES?
HAVE YOU DONE YOUR HOMEWORK???
TURN IT DOWN !!
ASK YOUR DAD

I imagine Gigspanner will be fighting off rivals for my talents as a lyricist. (I’ll practice my little dance as soon as I’m out of bed. Maybe someone could lend me a white jacket?)

I’ve taken to hot port, given that Nurofen Cold and Flu and Strepsils (you may have them al!) don’t seem to have the slightest effect.

Hot port sounds like a great idea but if it fails, whisky, lemon juice and a bit of sugar gently warmed. Copyright Uricon2's Nan, b 1895.

All her remedies contained alcohol and equal measures of port and brandy saved my DBro on his wedding day after a dodgy meal the night before and me during the Covid Bad Tum Era (Not an Era Ms Swift is likely to replicate)

As you rightly point out, even if such things don't work, they at least cheer you up.

Yeap, she really is that nasty.

But that’s her MO isn’t it? - everyone else is to blame. Always. When I read TSP I found her attitude towards others pretty unpleasant but of course now, with full knowledge, I can see that she actually treats everyone with utter contempt. Other walkers are not ‘authentic’ (hahahaha - the irony!) they’re just weekend walkers, off on a jolly (never mind the fact they probably have jobs so can’t piss about walking all week.) Campsite owners and cafe proprietors are just nasty capitalists who deserve to be stolen from (never mind the fact that by her own admission in her rebuttal, moth had invested in ‘Cooper’s’ property portfolio, plus they owned the French property - so they were quite happy to build up their own little empire when it suited them.) Even so called friends are treated with contempt once they’ve got they want from them - taking over land at the farm on the pretext of rewilding and producing cider, then failing to do either.

so really it’s no surprise that when backed into a corner it’s still not her fault or responsibility. ‘Mistakes were made’ in the Hemmings’ business is a pathetic attempt to cast a slur on the business of a man who can’t respond because he’s now passed away. And of course it’s all of us, who are quite rightly angry and let down, who are to blame for genuine CBD Suffererers who have lost hope!

it’s laughable in a way, except that she’s hurt a lot of people with her dishonest behaviour.

Hell yes and it doesn't even have to be clean. I never thought I'd be looking forward to getting my pension quite as much.

I'll miss you all, just a little bit you understand, when this is all over but don't tell anyone I said that. I'll deny it very convincingly anyway.

scrambles aboard the charabanc with new supplies of cider from that nice farm just off the M5 somewhere in Somerset, happy stopping point on many a youthful, high-spirited jaunt to the Devon coast in my student days

Good idea @Pissenlit I'm sure the port will be better for you, Salray has got more front than Blackpool, Kate Winslet and Greg Wise. I have never understood the Iceland trip @Catwith69lives but then there is so much that doesn't make sense, perhaps we should all be on something stronger than cider :) I agree @crossedlines it would be laughable if it wasn't so damaging, maybe I will go mix myself one of @Uricon2 Nan's specials before @DisappointedReader calls all aboard for the charabanc.

Can someone lift @Pissenlit's bed aboard? Warning: it might be heavy with both of us in, plus all the assorted bottles, potions, pills and my general air of disgruntlement.

Adverts for pensions now here!

Lights off.