Thread 18: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

Hello all. I've simplified the opening post as I don't think we need to keep reposting all the links, timelines and so on at this stage of proceedings.

The Observer's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...
First thread: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
Links to threads 2-16, the other 20 Observer articles and videos to date, Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement, our timeline and sources can all be accessed in the OP and first few posts of Thread 17: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5403285-thread-17-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 exposé items 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 drive-by scolders 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 17 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.

Now three months in, if these threads could wear slogan t-shirts they would be Mark Twain's often misquoted 'The report of my death was an exaggeration'. Applications in writing from correspondents seeking supply parcels of fudge and cider will be tolerated.

Here we are again
Disappointed as can be
All good pals and jolly good company
Strolling round the path
Happy on a spree
All good pals and jolly good company

Never mind the weather, never mind the rain
Now that we're together, whoops we go again!
Whoops, we go again
La-di-da-di-da, la-di-da-di-dee
All good pals and jolly good company

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

This thread gets better and better! I’ve got loads of links to pursue.

Where is the picture from?

RW's IG feed

Writer's workshop

Hope your shorthand is up to speed - we are relying on you.
I want to go but 6 1/2 hours each way - 2 trains, 3 buses doesn't quite fit into my schedule. 😒

One of the refreshing differences between TSP and Wild is that even though Cheryl Strayed is a solo 20something walking a remote path where most other hikers are pairs or groups of men, some of whom will be (legally) armed, and she does experience sexual harassment and fear of sexual violence from fellow-hikers and people she hitches lifts with when she needs to get off the trail to repair her malfunctioning stove, but in general she’s open to and often positive about the people she meets, who are often depicted as kind and generous.

Even when someone isn’t kind (there’s a motel owner who mistakes her for a hooker) she doesn’t turn it into an opportunity to flex her writerly claws at their expense.

I get that it’s a very different type of walk with far fewer people on the path, but it’s kind of a relief when not every other person encountered is awful.

I don’t know why this strikes me as so funny.😆

Though it’s a great poncho.

Hmm. Seems she is a fan and not a published author.

That would explain the pose - she does look all "giggly fangirl can't believe she's meeting her heroine"!

Writers' Workshops aren't only for writers who want to be published or are seeking publication. There are many people who write only for themselves but want to improve their story telling or who are writing an autobiography for their family for when they are gone, or who write as therapy.

Unless you're attending a 'How to polish your manuscript to get a publisher's attention', then you are likely to find them full of writing wannabes or those who are writing other than for publication. So it doesn't follow that this woman has to be either a rampant fan of RW (although she probably is) or is or will be published.

Oooh, and I also find it telling that, despite being photographed with someone who clearly seems to admire her, RW has both her hands in her pockets.

When I have people who want to have their photograph taken with me (sadly rare), I either put an arm around them or stand in close. They want to show that photo to people and standing as though you wish you were somewhere else and believe that the person standing next to you might either be deranged or have the plague, does not look particularly friendly.

Yes to what @Vroomfondleswaistcoat says. A friend was teaching on an 'Advanced' Arvon residential course recently, and even on a course marketed as not for beginners, her cohort of 16 were pretty mixed -- some had already published books, traditionally or via self-publishing and were looking to improve or for feedback on a new or stalled project, some had been writing for years for themselves, or as therapy, with no plan to pursue publication, while others saw it as a very longterm goal, but not an immediate prospect.

Poncho Woman may simply be a cheery, smiley type. Yes, next to her SW does look a bit skulky, but then I frequently look suspicious in photos, just because I hate them.

I think that photo is taken in Heptonstall. Sylvia Plath is buried in the churchyard and the Arvon Foundation ( former home of Hughes and Plath) is not too far away.

I think some of that is just baked into US hiking, though. Big distances, remoteness, extreme climates, potentially dangerous wildlife.

I have an old friend whose family home I visit in Vermont, in an area which is lovely for walking (there's a fabulous LD path called the Long Trail, part of which is also the route of a bit of the Appalachian Trail, and part of which has an eerie reputation because six people vanished on it during the 40s) -- but I never quite lose my sense of US wildlife being exponentially more dangerous than anything in the UK or Ireland, and I am particularly cautious about making sure I don't surprise a black bear with a cub, which can mean a lot of singing when walking at certain times of year.

Think how differently TSP would read if the Walkers had to spend much of their days on the SWCP singing their way through school hymns or the back catalogue of Oasis to avoid surprising a bear. Maybe TW would be feted by passing gangs of 'smart, elderly women' for his vocal stylings on power ballads.😀

It does look like it might be the ruins of St Thomas A Beckett church, you're right -- Sylvia Plath is buried nearby. But TH only bought Lumb Bank years after SP's death.

Maybe TW would be feted by passing gangs of 'smart, elderly women' for his vocal stylings on power ballads.😀

Wonderful image of him karaoke busking " Don't Look Back in Anger" or Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" in the streets of St Ives. @FishwivesSalute

@FishwivesSalute I am particularly cautious about making sure I don't surprise a black bear with a cub, which can mean a lot of singing when walking at certain times of year.

Thank you for the tip - I didn't know about the singing. As we've said it isn't that relevant on the SWCP, although, I did see the 'Exmoor Beast' - when it was enjoying a small town lifestyle.

Do you know when it was? She looks a LOT like someone I know, at least in that photo, but I'm not sure that she goes to writers' workshops...

Loving the images of bears and mountain lions interacting with the WWs in various ways! Mrs Bear would snatch her Victoria sponge back when she spots the real Simon Armitage and then turn to give Mothtim a hard stare.

The IG feed, is that recent? I can’t believe the smug look on SW’s face and I agree with you @Vroomfondleswaistcoat about her body language.

Maybe it’s not a smug look on her face exactly but her whole demeanour, or maybe I’m just being too subjective I don’t know.

Nov 2021

Ahhh 2021… that explains it. Maybe not such a fan now! @DisappointedReader is this you??

I also hate have my photo taken and in just about every picture ever snapped I look like a balloon with a friendly face drawn on it. But if you are in the public eye (even if only to the extent of teaching a workshop), then you should at least have the grace to look pleased to be there and happy to meet your pupils. Not look as though you are trying to sneak away by increments.

I'm another camera shy type @Vroomfondleswaistcoat and if caught off guard make Our Simon look like a Chuckle Brother.

I was in our local little bookshop today. They have a lovely café above with homemade cakes and the best coffee. There are books all around and two by Raynor Winn have been faced backwards now, though not by me! I’m glad we’re not the only ones to dislike it getting shelf space.