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.

They are indeed loose with the demise of their parents and it does occur to me that Salray was may have been somehow pushing that idea towards the doctors.

When I was first diagnosed with early cataracts in my 30s (poor sight since age 5 and lots of bits and pieces problematic) the opthalmologist asked if there was a family history of blindness. I said only to my knowledge a great uncle who had been on the Burma railway and she snapped that "it was probably down to malnutrition", which I informed her I was well aware of, if she let me finish my sentence.

I could have made up any old scenario and she would have had to take it as truth. Recounted the above because it wouldn't be at all hard to lead a consultant down a particular road, should you have the malign and strange desire to do so.

@Uricon2 yes, he was convinced! I think he was surprised at how passionate I feel about it. That made me laugh, the AIBU! 😄
I don’t think I could ask him to read it now. My DP suffered through TSP before the scandal and then read two Simon Armitage books to make up for it.

We have to remember also that the French neighbours were told he was dying of cancer. So there is a history of this make believe.

Maybe Helen suffers from a thinking difficulty.

Remember human kindness.

I’m not sure I understand your meaning.

Hi @KettleSmocks I'm just popping up to explain as I can see that is confusing. If you look at the usernames you will see it in the list. The OP asked us not to quote it as the poster might pop back and give us a drive-by scolding for continuing this discussion.

It’s a pity the Walkers didn’t consider human kindness when they fleeced a small family business of £64,000.00

I think Moth uses it as the ultimate get-out-of-awkward-questions-free card. It stops in their tracks anyone who’s showing an interest in things the Walkerwinns would rather stayed hidden, which it seems often involve them not doing something they’re expected to do or responsible for, or letting someone else down (or, indeed, stealing £64000 or at least, making mistakes that to the casual observer look like stealing £64000).

I think he is as much a part of all this as SalRay.

Yay - we made it to the final of Strictly!

Ah, gotcha. Thanks, @BeguiledBrandy. I was being spectacularly dopey. Sorry, @Peladon.

In my defence I’d had about three hours of sleep the night before! (And having the most vivid and unpleasant dreams when I do get some!)

I do indeed, now that you mention it, remember that poster’s memorable contributions many threads ago. We are all terrible meanies who probably go about pushing harmlessly devoted homeless couples over Cornish cliffs for our kicks, having previously bared our teeth at them across a cream tea.

@KettleSmocks In my defence I’d had about three hours of sleep the night before! (And having the most vivid and unpleasant dreams when I do get some!)

What if being awake is really a dream, and dreaming is just a dream inside another dream?

Couldn't resist this distraction as it is a quote, as an epigraph, at the beginning of a novel I started yesterday - the surprisingly titled 'Light over Liskeard'. I was astounded that the author of Captain Corelli would write about one of our ordinary towns.

The reality isn't all like TSP - you obviously know that!

Is it any good?

I think he is as much a part of all this as SalRay

I do too, @DoubtfulCat . Unless she has him permanently locked up somewhere and wheels out a stand in for rare public appearances like something out of Dumas and unless he's never read the book that was apparently written FOR him, he knows exactly what she's claimed and gone along with it quite happily.

@KettleSmocks isn't it miserable? They even gave me a weeks Zopiclone which did nothing very much. I think the magnesium body butter occasionally helps a bit.

First impression: it is bestriding contemporary issues and 'where are we going as human beings?' with the mythical - probably why Cornwall comes into it .... I am yet to find out.

My reading is chaotic, but enjoyable, as I keep starting a different book. I blame this thread!

Sounds intriguing, I think I’d like this, thank you for sharing it.

I was thinking of you yesterday. I was doing my usual 'shift' in Waterstones (shhh you know what) ... and I noticed that there was a later book by Mark Wallington. They were selling 'Travels with Boogie' which has 500MW and Boogie up the River (which I haven't read) together - so later volumes might be called that.

Boogie up the River is wonderful. I love both those books so much - I think you can learn more about life from humour than from all the pages of po-faced grim narrative.

Totally agree. It might just be my stage of life/current travails but I'm much more likely to engage with and learn from something genuinely funny.

From my reading of TSP so far (I'm trying, I'm trying) an evening spent with the more angsty bits of Thomas Hardy would be light relief (at least he could write, too)

Thank you @BeguiledBrandy ! That’s definitely going on my list to buy too! I’ll look in our local. Incidentally, someone had turned the offenders back round to face the front again, so I had to fix that obvious mistake. Note the genuine use of the word mistake.

Does Moth have CBD?

@izzywizzyletsgetbizzywynthomas thanks for posting about what has been on my mind all day. I think a very rare, difficult to diagnose neurological condition that can only be definitively identified at post mortem is exactly what someone would try to fake. Medics are bound, properly, by an extreme form of confidentiality and will not blow the whistle, they can't.

There is always Google, now, if people are minded to do such things.

I'm a bit behind here, but it is really immaterial if Moth has neurological problems or not, the important point is that in the time frame this TSP is supposed to be representing 2013/2014 Moth had no diagnosis. Salray wrote the book in the full knowledge that Moth had no diagnosis for any kind of neurological condition when they had their house repossessed and they went on the alleged walk.

I can't remember who posted sorry, but I too had not thought about the fact that they didn't mention to the consultant in 2015, that they had walked the SWCP, it is after all such a significant part of who they are, so they tell us, it supposedly transformed them physically and spirituality. Salray wrote the book knowing she was lying and Moth knew she was lying as well, it was after all his diagnosis in 2015. As to whether they manipulated the consultant, I don't know, but Raymoth decided to retrofit it and it has been extremely profitable.

Just one point @Uricon2 yes patient confidentiality, but consultants or doctors who know a patient has miss used a diagnosis for profit or for public harm, have a duty to report it.

Pain and fatigue are both subjective. Other symptoms like the vague ‘bowel disturbances’ could be made up. How would any medic prove a negative pre-mortem?

I agree @DoubtfulCat no one can tell you that you are not in pain or fatigued, I'm thinking about it more and more, how would you not mention to the consultant in 2015 that you walked 630 miles of the SWCP? It is just ridiculous.