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!"

I'm imagining @AzureStaffy as a sort of Arthur Daley character, looking around shadily as a mark comes into view and saying "Psst? D'you wanna copy of TSP? Really cheap Guv'nor, got it in brown wrapping, noone will know, won't even be on your Amazon account this way".

I think this is spot on. Does she actually feel like this (not good) or is it her interpretation of "deep emotion' in which case, also not good.

2 scenarios involving explaining health problems to spouse

"Tears sprang to Moth's eyes as I broke down sharing the terrible news. This man to whom my whole life had been devoted was faced with the appalling fact that he might lose me, that we might be apart for the last chapters of our life journey when the universe meant us to be one, undivided. His devastation... (&c, &c)

The reality. Explain test results to DH 3 times. Him "You're not really, REALLY ill, are you?" Me "I bloody well hope not". Him "That's good. You'll be fine".

That quote .. is that from TSP @Uricon2 and if so, can you tell me the page number please? I just want to read it again in context. I do remember it of course but don’t know why Ray is telling him the terrible news. I thought it was the doctor … the alleged miserly mouthed doctor, who delivers the terrible news with ill concealed glee.

edit for grammar

It’s sort of the romantic idyllic dream love that my generation and previous were expecting to happen because it always did in fiction. In my reality, men ran a mile when confronted with that level of intense lust, love and hysteria following a cup of tea in the college canteen….. unless you happened to look like a supermodel. Only a narcissist enjoys it because they need the supply. I’m not yet convinced Tim is a narcissist so I do think it’s been cranked up to overblown proportions just like everything else.

@HatStickBoots You're right, I'm afraid I plagiarised the overwrought tone and made Salray the Poorly Person. TBH, the more I read the less I think she can write for toffee, TBH. It's all so ..Gothic.. in a really strange way.

I cleanse my mind with a chapter or 2 of Our Simon after attempting the purple prose.

I had no idea it wasn’t her writing! 😄

Thanks @HatStickBoots I'm here all week 😁.

This thread has made me laugh more than I thought I was capable of currently and I profoundly thank all of you.

Yes - the 6 year limit is in respect of making the claim which they clearly did through the courts. Normally mortgage companies do not pursue any losses in respect of negative equity after a property is repossessed as the borrower isn't in the position to pay anything and if they tried to force repayments then the creditor would just seek to cancel their debt either through bankruptcy or a creditor's arrangement. That said I do know building societies used to keep records of such unpaid debts in case the borrower suddenly came into funds - they did so particularly where they thought there may have been some element of fraud in the original repossession eg guarantors disappearing etc.

I suspect the issue with the 18% lenders is that having pursued the original court case and in the end having got nothing - and also being well aware of the Walkers' nature and inclination to stretch out litigation they may well be very careful about throwing good money after bad. I suspect any lawyer would push them to get a partial out of court settlement with the Walkers in return for providing anonymity etc.

They're great dogs and misunderstood but have no concept of personal space.

Ha, ha. It's a bit like those men in 1960 buying copies of 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' sneaking out of shops hiding their faces from the press. That brings us back to Penguin Books rather neatly - they've had a lot of adventures in the literary sense.

Maybe Timmoth is a player and SalRay pretends she doesn’t know?

Worth remembering Penguin Books were the good guys in defending Deborah Lipstadt from David Irving - but I suspect that was a few takeovers ago. I find it difficult to believe that Allen Lane would have accepted treating his readers in such a contemptuous manner

Yes, Penguin have published great books and enriched the lives of many of us. Shame they've been taken in by charlatans.

Anything's possible in this saga of deceit and mind games.

I'm confused. The article below, from Jan 2025, says that Raynor and Moth continue working on their farm near Fowey. I thought they left BC's place late 2022 and had been renting the 6 bed farmhouse with beach access on the Lizard Peninsula for some months. Was I mistaken?

Raynor Winn: My fave places - Cornwall | Muddy Stilettos

I'm half way through 500 mile walkies by Mark Wallington and I've got to admit that the relationship between this book and TSP is similar to that of Neptune and Mercury in the solar system!

Apart from Mark and Raynor's sunburnt noses I'm struggling to find any connection between the two books other than the suggestion that they both walked the entire SWCP.

If I'm being brutally honest, even though they are both about walking the SWCP I suspect they appeal to different types of readers and that Mark Wallington is the antithesis of Raynor Winn.

Which is what makes SW's assertion that '500 mile walkies' was the inspiration for her walk, all the more bizarre. Two more diametrically opposed authors and accounts of walking the SWCP, I simply can't imagine!

Popping back in - I posted on some of these threads a while back, but lost track of them. I just wanted to say that one positive outcome is that I have discovered the music of Gigspanner and the work of Angela Harding. I've bought one of her calendars (stocked in Waterstones) to give as a gift and will buy another for myself.

Angela Harding's art is really lovely @HonoriaBulstrode, I haven't seen all of her available designs, many posters have said that without Angela's art on the cover TSP would have been less appealing and I agree. I definitely think a Salray free Gigspanner is far more pleasant to listen to :)

Reading this made me think of something else that I have no idea about. Given the property was only sold by the creditors in 2016 (3 years after repossession), would the original mortgage debt also be accruing since monthly payments would have stopped from SalRay, or would the mortgage have frozen at the time of repossession? I have no knowledge of these things. Also, if the bank had first dibs, how come the creditors had authority to sell?

Peter Knight and Jon Spiers are currently on tour as a duo and if you can go see them, do.
https://www.peterknight.net/events/2025
I have seen Gigspanner with and without saltiness, much preferred the unseasoned version even before all this came out.

I'm not sure @SimoArmo, the information on the Shelter site, says that once a possession order has been granted mortgage payments are no longer made, but interest is still accruing until the property is sold, the property also needs maintenance until it's sold, those costs can also be added. The bank has a duty to get the best price for the property, so it can take time.

If the Walkers property took three years to sell then the interest and maintenance costs could also have been added to the debt. I am not sure about your question as to who took action and why, we did explore this a while ago I think? but I can't remember the outcome, I get a bit confused myself 🙃

I'm also guilty of getting myself confused by the sheer amount of audacious behind the scenes kerfuffling that has gone on. But the only reason, surely, that a nice house (as the Walkers' appeared to have been) took three years to sell, was that it was priced too high? The recommendation if your property is taking time to sell is that you drop the price? So was there some reason, perhaps, that the price couldn't be dropped, that a fixed amount had to be recouped?

I've known banks send repossessed houses to auction, where they often sell at way below what they otherwise would have fetched just so that the bank can recoup some of the money owing - why did this not happen here? Surely nobody concerned can have thought that the Walkers would pay any accrued monies while the place was waiting to sell?

It's a good point as the price of Pen-y-Maes in the episode of ETTC in 2012 was £435K, which equates to the value of the bank mortgage (280k) plus the creditors debt which increased to £140-150k.

You deserve a medal for sitting through Saltlines. Having seen the clips on YouTube I definitely wouldn't have managed it.

I'm sure some of the delay would have been because the bank/building society would have exercised their first charge once the second charge holder had repossessed the property after winning the court case - and there would have been some wrangling about at what price the property was to be sold. What surprises me is that Cooper/second charge holder actually made the loan and then pursued the court action when there was probably not enough equity in the property to justify doing so - perhaps they weren't given/aware of the full picture.