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.

I agree about the descriptions of the doctor too .. I think if anything is “grotesquely unfair and highly misleading” it is the portrayals of other people.

It's almost akin to amateur dramatics putting on a Shakespearean play and over exaggerating the performance. Unconvincing.

I wonder how the other authors and judges feel.

https://rsliterature.org/11171-2/

There is something about TSP that always reminds me of a comic strip in the Beano!

Another tower of silence.

Of all the people who could say something to help those affected by this deception - who have we heard from apart from a short, legal, statement?

On this RSL link, at the bottom, is a Contact Us. It is a simple form. I asked them politely re: Raynor Winn. Months ago. It would still be good if people just asked a question. But, I didn't even get an acknowledgement.

It won't seem to copy but the Independent has a piece about the forthcoming documentary. It basically rehashes the Sky blurb but at the end says they have contacted Salray's representatives for comment.

I think Raymoth honestly thought it would all go away but it isn't.

Good. So it shouldn't.

But re the Bland prize - I'm not sure there's anything they could do really. Without absolute proof it would be unfair of them to strip anyone of the prize and, while it is practically certain that HNTDDD was a previously published book by Sal, they would need a copy of the book and, I should think, some kind of testimony from SW that 'mistakes had been made'.

Otherwise it might open the door to disgruntled losers-out on the prize waving any old book they could find and alleging it to be a previously written book by the person who cheated them of the prize. They would need proof. And we are a bit short of that. Probability won't do it, I wouldn't have thought.

@izzywizzyletsgetbizzywynthomas that’s so apt! 😄

The overegged and histrionic nature of her writing sits even more ill when as you say there was no specific diagnosis at that time anyway @HatStickBoots That passage is a total invention, which makes the melodrama incredibly unseemly. I think the whole premis of the 'tragic true story' [sic] really enabled her to get away with being a not great writer, which if it had been sold as a novel she wouldn't have.

(Can anyone tell that I'm not really enjoying TSP?!)

If it had been sold as fiction @Uricon2 I doubt Penguin would have published it.

Not sure if this review has been posted before, but if not, it's well worth a read.

Decade: The Salt Path (2018) | Lion & Unicorn

Thanks. I have just listened to this and I see it was two days after the publication of TSP - so I see you say this the first interview we know about.

I noticed she started: "It's the sort of thing you expect to happen to someone else - not yourself, really."

And, I'm thinking ok Sal, do you mean Raynor Winn?

Secondly, why has no one told me that she is the Mermaid of Zennor incarnate? I didn't know she had been swimming with a pod of dolphins .... I've noticed she doesn't mention going in the sea ... just TimMoth.

The terrible thing is that some of the people who read the book Pre Scandal Era would have had experienced their own version of the scene with the doctors, where they and their loved ones heard the diagnosis of CBD/CBS or some other terminal neurological condition. Many others yet, including I'm sure some of us on here, have had really bad medical news given about themselves or someone close. It's a terrible thing.

To make up such a scene for the greater glory of Salray Bernhardt and pretend it was actual truth is appalling.

@BeguiledBrandy Mermaid of Zennor , too funny!

Plodding, self-centred and deathly dull, Raynor Winn’s chronicle of a desperate couple’s long journey through endless complaining and bad writing isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. I trudged, limped and, finally, crawled through the whole punishing thing. Thoughts and prayers gratefully received.

Amen to that.

Finlay McLaren, you are not alone and I salute you. Wonderful piece, thanks @izzywizzyletsgetbizzywynthomas for sharing.

Oh gosh yes… it’s shameful. All she has done in her books is preach that she was right and the doctor was wrong. If the book was launched as fiction, she would never have got away with these notions. She would have been accused of making a mockery of the medical profession, other people’s misery, illness and so on.

All those things - and yet it won prizes and topped best seller lists. Just - how? I mean honestly, how? Did people ignore the actual quality of the writing and just look to the content and if so, why? Usually for a book to win a prize it has to fulfil a whole list of attributes - writing suitable for audience, contents well handled, integration of other elements (nature in this case) placed to expand and deepen understanding of the story. And yet, TSP seems to do none of these things, being pedestrian, cliched and really bringing no new insights into any of the topics covered.

So how did it do so well?

I have no idea why it won prizes @Vroomfondleswaistcoat . Thank you for your insight here. A book priced at £9.99, you’ve got to be invested in the story and hype to really justify that purchase. The reviews helped that decision making. I think it was just pity. The belief that it was real. I have no doubt at all that the reviews would have been different if the book were marketed as fiction and the prizes would not have been awarded. I do think the judges were biased.

True, I'm just curious what they think about the whole affair - the judges and other authors who didn't win. Plus, even if HNTDDD never materialises or cannot be proven to have been written by RW, her prize winning book was undeserving of the prize now we know the lies behind it. So I'd like to know their opinions, not that I expect they'll ever be forthcoming.

Maybe, because it was such a commercial success, the judges bowed to the greater wisdom of the great reading public. As discussed previously it pushed all the right buttons while at the same time being the travel writing equivalent of 'cosy crime'. A cosy caper.

Serious topics wrapped up in a jolly west country jaunt with an attractive cover targetted at the book club reading groups of largely middle class women who had limited experience of house repossession, CBD or long distance walking but felt they could vicariously live Raymoth's uplifting story as thumbs were twiddled, Covid bubbles formed and strange things happened during a once in a hundred year pandemic.

Bottom line - aided and abetted by strategic marketing by GMC and a commercially driven focus by PRh, Sal also got lucky. She tapped into the zeitgeist of the nation at a specific point in time where to a lesser or greater extent, everybody was a victim of circumstance and was crying out for a feel good story of loss, hope and salvation.

Either that or she was a great undiscovered literary talent who finally reaped her just rewards.

Take your pick!

I agree @HatStickBoots people felt sorry for them, including the judges. There must of have been an element of people who thought Salray was going to become a widow in the next few years. They believed it to be a true story and would want to see her better set financially, which she now is.

Just seen your post @SimoArmo I agree now the truth is known, they could make some kind of statement.

All I can say is lockdown has a lot to answer for @izzywizzyletsgetbizzywynthomas :)

Indeed. As former PM, Boris Johnson admitted this week in front of a House of Commons Select Committee investigating the Gvt's response to the Covid epidemic and the societal impact of lockdown :

"Mistakes were made"

I understand your point @Vroomfondleswaistcoat they can't take a prize away, unless the book is found and proved to be Raynor's creation, as you say she would really have to admit it, what a pity it can't be found, has anyone emailed the smallholders group? I would have thought CH would have done as part of her search, she put various searches out.

Yes indeed @izzywizzyletsgetbizzywynthomas my DD along with myself, spent twelve weeks not allowed to go out of the house, not even to walk.

Well, where would you look to see a variety of opinions before the controversy? .. then The Observer story breaks and someone posts a link .... to this thread.

My favourite insights ... these two were very sharp:
---

Daysofcake · 26/05/2025 17:40

SirChenjins · 21/05/2025 18:32

I gave up a few chapters in. The couple were ridiculous and quite frankly, deserved everything they got through their sheer stupidity - to the extent I started to doubt it was a true story.

^^This - I started reading it after a friend gave it to me, saying she had found it incredibly sad and moving. They started to really annoy me, though — the beginning didn’t quite ring true. DP is a lawyer and said the legal situation (with the judge not accepting the evidence in time), would be very unlikely to have happened in the way she presents it. I couldn’t find any real life evidence of the case, either, which would normally be around in the public domain, so I concluded that her name must be a pseudonym, because there’s no trace of her unless connected to the book publication. (Try it — it’s impossible to find out any corroborating evidence about them in real life beyond the book publicity!)

The whole time in the book they seemed to regard themselves as a special case who should be allowed to do things like nick stuff, trespass, wild camp etc. just because they were middle class people in a tight spot! I had to abandon it 2/3 of the way through!

The Salt Path | Mumsnet