Thread 19: 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 ...

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?

Thread 18: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5422393-thread-18-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. Over four months we have done amazingly well together for 18 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.

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

"I'll fight anyone who says I'll make it to Christmas 2021!"

Whatever the Walkers are up to at present, past behaviour suggests they are unlikely to be open and honest about it or behave like normal rational people. My guess is they are an absolute nightmare for their publishers, lawyers and PR people.

Hi everyone. Just to quickly explain that I collapsed in the city centre and fractured my skull. I know so extreme! This was on the 5th so I am going to read everything from then onwards. I have seen some wonderful contributions from several of you on that day. Good stuff!

I was in hospital for four days and I have to look after my head now. I will be reading but not contributing for a while. Keep up the great work. 😁

Oh @BecalmedBrandy ! I'm so sorry, hoping that whatever made you collapse is Sorted (hopefully 'just' fainting?) and your poor head is well on the mend.

Take care and look forward to seeing you back on the path soonest. There is fudge, sloe gin and cider awaiting.

So sorry @BecalmedBrandy really hope you feel better soon 💐there is plenty of fudge, cider, and sloe gin as @Uricon2 said, along with something called tablet, much better than vinegar and brown paper :)

Don't worry @BecalmedBrandy - we'll be here, working ourselves into a froth on your behalf while you are recovering. Get well soon.

Oh no! Wishing you a speedy smooth recovery 💐

@BecalmedBrandy so sorry this has happened to you! Wishing you all the best for a swift recovery. Please take care of yourself 💐

@BecalmedBrandy Wishing you a speedy recovery.

I’m so sorry to hear it, @BecalmedBrandy! Hope you can rest up in hospital whilst they take care of you, and look forward to welcoming you back onto the threads once you’re all recovered. Sending you all my best wishes 🌺🌺

Ooh nasty, I hope all is well now or swiftly recovering @BecalmedBrandy ❤️‍🩹💐

How awful. Sending you good wishes and a swift recovery.

This short article is about warranties in contracts between authors and publishers. The subject matter has been covered on these threads before, but I still found it interesting.

https://aboutmountains.substack.com/p/the-salt-path-and-author-contract

Thanks @Peladon that's a really useful article. I think I can understand now why the Walkers haven’t (as far as we know) invested any of their money into a permanent home or land because of the risk that they’d lose it all again if they were found out and sued. Sally knew all along that what she was writing was based on a lot of untruths. Why did she/they take this risk?

If she feared that kind of repercussion, then she will have put money away where nobody could find it. I don't think she fears being sued because I think she thinks she's got a cast iron argument for the book being 'her truth'. Her sort always think they are in the right and are unable to believe, or to plan for, being proved wrong.

Look after yourself, @BecalmedBrandy. 💐

While you recover, plan a memoir in which you didn’t collapse and hit your head, but were knocked over by a badly behaved dog as you were scrabbling in the gutter for your last 10p while a hoity-toity stranger lectured you on being a drunk tramp.

Great post - made me laugh. Salray's got Ophelia hair at least.

How awful for you. I hope you recover quickly.

In the famous painting of Ophelia, the model had to lie fully clothed in a bath of water, heated by candles underneath. But the candles blew out, the water went cold and the model caught a severe cold. It sounds like a story that Our Sal would tell. (What happened next was that the model's dad threatened to sue Millais and Millais agreed to pay the doctors' bills, but our Sal wouldn't mention that bit.)

I didn't know that - it's fascinating.

To continue with my survey of the books: my local library has a copy of TSP in the Travel bookshelves but The Wild Silence is in Sociology/Crime which is apt. There are copies of TSP going for as little as 50p in charity shops. There may be renewed interest after the television documentary.

You could buy up the 50p copies ready @AzureStaffy, you might make a quick profit on eBay if people are wanting the book after the document :) It is interesting that the Walkers haven't, as far as we know, invested money in land or property. Have they been sitting on it, wondering if the bubble would burst ?

I don't think anyone could make a sound legal case for 'harm', though.

The film distributors would presumably sue the film's producers (who apparently did their own due diligence) rather than the publishers, and honestly, anyone genuinely coming off Pregabalin and going on a 600 mile walk because someone in a book (even in a book classified as 'non-fiction') did so with good results is a bit mad, and I think would be likely to be destroyed by the defence if they brought a case.

And TSP itself (though not SW's claims in interviews or the sequels, as we've often said on here) is actually pretty careful not to make any medical claims that could be viewed as anything other than the subjective account of a non-medic catastrophising and then desperate to see some improvement in her husband, and makes it clear the diagnosis is tentative at best.

I think a more likely money-loss scenario would be PRH deciding to cancel OWH and requiring SW to repay her advance, but even then, PRH will also have contractual obligations outlining the situations in which they can not publish the contracted book.

If PRH outline sound commercial reasons for not publishing it (SW's damaged reputation meaning low sales etc), a judge might well find that the publisher should not be forced to make a financial loss and find in their favour, if SW sued for loss of earnings.

But rather than going to court, PRH might decide to return the rights to the author, saying that SW has suffered no financial loss and that if the book is good enough, the author will have no difficulty finding a publisher elsewhere.

If no other publisher is interested, then PRH are right in thinking the book wasn't commercially viable.

To counter this, SW would then have to prove that her inability to find another publisher was caused by PRH's breach, that their failure to publish was widely known and that it damaged the book's prospects elsewhere etc.

A bit of a quagmire, to put it mildly.

Very, very true. I agree that we’ve seen and read enough evidence to suggest that SW has a certain arrogance where law is concerned. In the beginning she probably thought that having paid back the £64k and gained a signed non-disclosure agreement that that was now in the past and no longer relevant to their life going forward. She also managed to erect a few distractions around that little misdemeanour, such as Moth’s illness (blown up out of all proportion) and their homelessness. I think she hoped that nobody would be heartless enough to draw attention to the hidden element, she was relying on that and still is it would seem. But maybe, due their circumstances, somebody in their small family unit may have suggested that it would be a mistake to buy their own property and land at that stage. I don’t know..

If there are any debts still owed (eg to the people who acquired the 18% per annum loan), perhaps they would take an interest in any new property.

Yes, I have absolutely no idea what happens when a creditor buys a debt and gets the property against which the loan was secured repossessed and sold, but it turns out that the property is heavily mortgaged, and that the mortgage lender gets priority in the funds resulting from the sale, meaning the person who bought the debt is left out of pocket.

Does that person have any claim on money subsequently earned by the person who took out the loan against their property in the first place? And if so, is interesting accruing all the time? Or does the sale of the property against which the loan was secured end all the dealings between the parties? (Do we know whether the two men who bought the debt got any money from the sale of the farm, after the mortgage was (presumably) paid off?)

And given that SW appears to think she and TW were rather noble not to declare bankruptcy, is there a hard-nosed legal/financial reason they didn't?

(Also, was the loan originally made to SW alone or to both Walkers? Obviously it was both their home that was used as security, and it was a relative of TW's who loaned the money, but I did wonder whether the supposedly shy SW representing herself in court while extrovert, self-confident TW didn't was because she was the person against whom the action was being brought...?)

That’s an incredible post @HumoursofBandon ! The scenes she’s written about a doctor telling them that Moth has CBD are fictional though aren’t they? Wrong time, wrong diagnosis etc. I think it’s harmful and certainly the PSPA thought so because Moth’s involvement and videos were immediately dropped.