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!"

When you said “a fist of it”, I thought that meant that they were doing badly or even worse than the Walkers, so when I looked at the website and saw the opposite, I was confused!

That quote from TSP, regardless of the fact that mother was still alive during the events of TSP, is another one of “Raynor’s” little confidences to evoke sympathy. Poor Raynor, Mother mocking and laughing at her because she married Moth and he didn’t have any money or land. In the Raynor Winn alternative universe, this provides melodrama. The reader might assume that this would be a good reason for not seeking help from their immediate families because it seems they’ve been cast out and ostracised as a family unit (hard to imagine, but she pushes it that way). In reality, there’s Sally Walker the embezzler and her charming husband whose alleged charm failed to work on his MIL who did or did not know that her daughter was a thief.

Perhaps in OWH we will hear more about the alternate Suitor With Acres (But Who Didn’t Have Blond Eco Warrior Hair Or a Sexy Way With Mars Bar Dunking).

In fairness, if you were to take TSP at face value, in ignorance of the backstory, you might think SW’s mother had a point, in that TSP presents them losing their home as entirely TW’s fault because of his misplaced trust in ‘Cooper’, and also says he hasn’t worked much in years because of unspecified aches and pains, but that nonetheless he’s let her front the legal case, meaning she can’t work either.

Which does always make me wonder about whether they actually talked about what fictional cover story she would insert into the start of TSP. Like, given that it appears to have been SW’s embezzlement that lost them their home, whether the cover story should also make it be her fault — like why was it TW’s friend who screwed them over financially, not SW’s bad investment? Just distracting the attention from her?

Interesting points @WellSurely I think you’re right. The further this goes, the deeper we get, the more obvious it seems that TSP as a finished article with the sweet story that introduced it (scribbled notes, old printer, Morh’s memory, tied with string, birthday gift, surprising reaction from daughter and total mind blow that lil ol me could write!) is a far cry from the reality because all the above was cooked up between the pair of them in order to create something nice and credible from their pile of dung.

SW's interview in The Big Issue says:

"When we stopped walking he deteriorated very quickly, but on returning to the walk he improved again. There has been some scientific research surrounding his illness and endurance training, but it's still early days and there's no conclusive evidence. But a huge body of research has proved that simply spending time in a natural environment has the power to heal the human body in incredible ways that we're only just beginning to understand."

PS: Just before making the comment above (about scientific / medical research), SW said:

"I'm not a scitentist or a doctor and I'd hate to give anyone false hope, I can only talk about what happened to Moth."

“I can only talk about what happened to Moth” and that is questionable because how can anyone trust what she says or writes? It’s a joke.

If he didn't have CBD and his neurological condition was caused by depression or something psychosomatic then I guess it is possible that doing strenuous exercise did alleviate his symptoms and being out in the countryside was good for him. However, without any scientific yardstick of exactly what his symptoms were before, during and after the walk, it's impossible to conclude anything with any level of certainty!

The promotion of the concept of reduced calories aiding his improvement seems very dodgy.

He would have wasted away on packets of noodles and seldom any protein. I bet there was far more consumption of pasties and chips than they made out.

My friend just sent this - it’s from the radio Times!

Well done ... thanks. Looking good - footsteps real and imagined ... knowledge of HNTDDD ... relatives from both sides.

Please someone give me a thorough summary after it airs.

How I discovered The Real Salt Path from investigation into Raynor Winn's memoir | Radio Times

Thank You @IvyGoldenM and @NaughtyNoodler

A most salient bit

We made new discoveries:we found a novel that Winn had written years before The Salt Path that contains a level of autobigraphical truth absent in her memoirs and found members of their two respective families who have been prepared to talk to me, lifting the lid on more revelations from their past

ETA Chloe must have some sort of proof that Izzy Wizzy is in fact (as we all knew) Salray.

Oh have no fear dear @BecalmedBrandy I've been going to bed v early due to parlous health but an exception will be made on 15/12! I very much doubt I will be alone.

Izzy Wizzy, Let's Get Bizzy!

Or out of the country...!

Every story should end, but not like this. Not squatting in the outside toilet. Not choked by flaking limewash, or stung by hailstones beating through the doorless opening. Not holding her breath, waiting for a hunk of scrap metal to become the final nail in the coffin.
The winds gusting to force eight, threatening a storm ten. Roaring in from the Irish Sea with unstoppable fury. Each pulse lifting in strength as it clears the headland, crushing down on her with dragons breath, anadl y ddraig. Driving her from this patch of land, reminding her that it should never have been theirs.
The pain, the anguish, the futility of holding on. Should she let go, lift the dirt from beneath her nails, straighten her aching limbs and give herself over to the wind? Let it lift her and carry her weightless, burdenless to come what may.
She wasnt supposed to be this person, she was a pure soul, transparent, simple. How did the grime creep in and destroy the heart of her? Picking her apart cell by cell. Truth, freedom, self-respect, a birthright squandered for a dream, for love. She strains every sinew to prevent herself uploading into the void shes become.
The grain of the wood is separating, letting in air where there has been none for a hundred years. Steel bolts squealing, clenching their teeth against the inevitable. Shes clenched with them, their fate is one. Irresistible forces about to rip their lives apart. She cant breathe, please hold on. Bloods pounding in her ears as shes braced against the stones, ancient and grasping.
Then its gone, everythings gone.

Maybe in a weird sort of way she predicted this outcome! "And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges" .....

I have no idea what that nonsense is meant to be about!

Oh good, maybe Our Chloe will raise the issue of the CB prize being wrongly awarded! (Why, yes, I AM still bitter about that...)

My first thought on reading was of that @Vroomfondleswaistcoat .I have a sneaking suspicion that somehow she's got hold (go Chloe) of the Magnum 'Opeless in question and must be really very sure.

She wasnt supposed to be this person, she was a pure soul, transparent, simple.

Never fails to grind my gears.

I wonder if the family members in question shed light on the authorship of HNTDDD?

https://media.onthemarket.com/properties/835369/doc_0_4.pdf

Apologies if this has already been posted.

Absolutely grandiose posturing. They are the best at healing the earth and all of nature returns when they tend to farm!

Shame it’s all lies, really.

I suppose SalRay could have raised Lazarus himself.

But it’s in the Radio Times and there’s a Sky documentary? Why wouldn’t people talk about an unfolding situation which is in the media just now?

Hello all. The trusty, salty charabanc and I have been off the path for repairs but I've been reading along with you alongside tinkering with the engine and clearing out all the fudge wrappers and empty cider bottles. Life events have meant that I haven't really had the time or headspace to post but there didn't seem to be much need when you have all been busy posting pretty much everything I would have wanted to say anyway! So fear not, I have not disappeared like our hapless pair! Thread 20 will be revving up shortly, all ready for Further Developments.