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!"

In other news, and, ahem, I hope you all don't mind some shameless self-promotion (though I must confess I am not he who walked poetry to eager, cake dispensing fans along the SWCP a new podcast has been launched by Our Simon from his garden shed!

Regarding whether SalRay was an incredibly cunning person who “set up” scenarios with the end goal being writing TSP and achieving fame or “things just worked out this way” my guess would be that they like doing a bit of walking and SalRay always wanted to be an author*. Add in the potential cluster B tendencies, pathological lying, sense of entitlement and ability to be a victim together with a similar/enabler partner.
It is pure chance that she produced a “passable” book at the right time and place which became the TSP phenomenon. My guess is this brought SalRay and Tim the sort of praise, attention, respect and riches which they always felt they deserved.

*I say “author” because I don’t think she loves writing, I don’t think it’s her “craft” and I don’t think she puts a lot into it, doubt she has well-thumbed copies of relevant books on how to write etc.Not much evidence of short stories (weird Big Issue piece seems to link to imminent publication of TSP) I think she wanted to be celebrated, as an “author”. Which I think is a link to how she wants to be seen - a wild child of nature with a library and powder-blue range in a farmhouse rebuilt stone-by stone by hand.
Not, say, a middle aged mum of two benefits cheat/embezzeler/workshy glumwashing misanthrope.

Wait...is he...smiling?!!

Thanks @SimoArmo (even though you're not 'that' Our Simon!)

What SW has done is make her work "accessible" by focussing on certain themes ( homelessness, terminal illness of a partner, overcoming injustice) which tap into a specific middle class zeitgeist that was exacerbated by the challenges of lockdown and Covid. Right place, right time and right agent (GMC) targeting the right market with an attractive cover design from AH thrown in for good measure.

2 million people bought the book and lapped it up, so can Mr Market be wrong? The proof of the pudding is surely in the eating? She may not be in the same league in the pantheon of great travel writers as luminaries such as Colin Thubron, Patrick Leigh-Fermor or Bruce Chatwin. But for a lowly farmer's lass from Dunstall, she ain't done bad and she has shifted a good deal more copies of her books than some of the great and the good of travel literature.

Ok so it's all based on a toxic cocktail of lies, petty criminality and misanthropy that's effectively been packaged and sold snake oil to the masses. But hey, who cares? It was a good read, and everybody makes mistakes in life. She has rolled with the blows, repaid the sums she embezzled and given pleasure to millions. So where is the beef? Doesn't she deserve a second chance?

I don't happen to agree with the above view (!) but it is a not uncommon reaction to the Salt Path controversy!

Lots of very interesting and insightful comments on the genesis of and motivation behind TSP. I think I'm most certain about what it's not. It wasn't written as an aide memoire/gift/anything for Timoth. The plonked in paragraphs of generic and at times irrelevant local information that appear and the general misanthropic moanfest give the lie to that and I don't believe they were all added on editorial instruction, because without them it would have been a slender volume indeed that was first submitted to PRH.

Was there an "I can do that (with added misery memoire aspects and ultimate Triumph Over Adversity)" moment? Can't say for sure of course, but I don't believe it was an outflowing of inspired creativity that drove her. I think she has a huge debt to Paddy Dillon, Mark Wallington and our own Mr Armitage as well as all the other people she's had huge debts to, of course.

To be honest, I don't have well thumbed books on how to write (I did write one though, and that one is well thumbed) or lots of short stories out there. So it's not an essential for being a writer.

I've just remembered that I was encouraged to keep a "sepsis recovery journal" by the medics at one point. I didn't of course because I felt too ill and then too fed up with the whole thing, but I'm sure I could come up with something from memory, even with a few rather revolting illustrations and (true) 'heartbreaking anecdotes' from friends. PRH, cooooeee!

Thing is, I couldn't even if I had the gifts of Orwell because I know there are people and families who have suffered more than I can imagine because of it and despite having a badish time, I'd feel a total fraud when many have had it so much worse. I never get the impression that Salray thinks that she has any blessings to count, even though some of the travails were self inflicted and others factitous.

I think I'd have a bit more respect for Raymoth if they put their money where their mouth is rather than indulge in tokenism. What do I mean by that?

Well, if you are truly interested and invested in the plight of rural homelessness, do some research and offer some solutions. All I can see in SW's concern about this issue is a 'sleep over' in a well insulated barn during the Eden Project's 'Great Sleep Out' a few years ago.

Ok what about her advocacy for raising awareness of CBD via PSPA. Great, but what if Moth doesn't have CBD? What exactly can she contribute to carer groups other than saying I went off on a jolly walk a few years ago and Moth miraculously stopped CBD in its tracks/made a miraculous recovery. Amazing what long distance walking can do for you....

What about global warming and ecological advocacy? What can SW add to the great debate other than bland statements such as David Attenborough is a good bloke and rewilding of major parts of the UK is a good thing (for wildlife if not for agricultural prices) Has she voted with her feet and decamped to a remote croft in Scotland to live an ecologically friendly life. Er no - she is shacked up in a 6 bedroom farmhouse on the Lizard peninsula with a swimming pool and access to a private beach.

Ok - what about all the good she has done for The Salt Path (sorry SWCP)? Yes it has probably boosted walker numbers but if they are all wild camping and surviving off 20p packets of noodles, its debateable what the benefit to the local economy is ( for the Scottish equivalent check out the impact of the NC50O on local communities like Oldshoremore etc)

Rant over! Am afraid thst I don't buy into the brand image of SW as the saviour of the rural west country homeless, CBD sufferers, an environmental visionary or someone whose rebranding of the SWCP is anything more than a mercenary act of self promotion and commercial exploitation.

Respect? Hope Bourne who lived on Exmoor not far from Dulverton where Chloe is giving a talk on Saturday week.

https://cherrycache.org/2023/04/30/hope-bourne-a-wild-woman-of-exmoor/

She also has handmade bespoke walking boots that likely cost her £700+, which to me seems to be an incredible indulgence (as with the current rental) for someone who claims to have once lost everything.

I'm not against the boots of course, and if I ever had the money from millions of book sales I might be tempted to buy some, (though I'm probably far too frugal now). But something just feels a little incongruous about SW buying high end shoes given what we know. Of course, she is entitled to spend her money as she sees fit. Perhaps the shoes and the house rental ultimately reveal to us she does (and did) have expensive tastes.

If you don’t mind answering, how did you “learn” to write books (fiction novels, is that correct?) was it the trial and error of a patient editor? I assume you weren’t able to just submit your “first” MS and it was published with barely any edits, unlike SalRay.

Do you mean to say that you (Vroom) didn't attend the Arvon courses led by luminaries such as Raynor Winn? You don't know what you were missing!

Dulverton...where Liz Jones lived at one point I think. She and Salray have much, much in common IMO, principally believing that any hardship resulting from their own Truly Rubbish Decisions is actually fault of Someone(s) Else.

Don't think LJ is an embezzler though, for all her annoying qualities.

Boris doesn't live a million miles frpm there (Simonsbath) A regular at The Exmoor Forest Hotel from all accounts which has gone v upmarket in recent years.

The Exmoor Forest Hotel sounds like a must to avoid. LJ, Salray and Boris in the snug bar.

Now that would be a book, though.

Thank you for this. What a wonderful woman.

It is the difference between the real and the fake again, I think. Her writing about nature and her surroundings is on a completely different level to Salrays.

I've had a quick look at some of the accounts who follow SW on Instagram. Many haven't been active for months and only have a few followers. I suspect SW bought a lot of her followers so there will be a good many fake bots among these. A lot of people I know don't bother with Instagram anymore but won't necessarily have unfollowed her.

I imagine some followers are eager for new news too. It seems incredible to me that the silence has gone on for so long. She says in the rebuttal that speaking with her lawyers is ongoing. I imagine it is relentless. I’m sure she wants to sue for defamation of character and loss of earnings. Good luck with that!

Yes, definitely! No comparison. I’d like to see the film mentioned in the article “How many people see the stars as I do?”

That’s a conundrum isn’t it? On the one hand it’s a good investment to purchase good quality boots that might also be giving a local shoemaker some much needed business, it’s very supportive as well as practical and they will last a long time. On the downside, it sends a hypocritical message to people she has previously aligned herself with by pretending to be homeless, anybody who relies on food and clothing banks, charity shops, to whom £700 for a pair of boots would be wildly impractical. If she buys things as status symbols it’s even worse.
It’s difficult for me to think she earned her money fairly. The Christopher Bland prize for instance. She doesn’t deserve it and certainly didn’t have the necessary criteria to even be eligible in the first place (having been a thief, lying about Tim, lying about circumstances and the plagiarism of other writers’ ideas). As everyone has pointed out, the themes in her books could never have been sold as fiction. This is where some people hearing a story that sounds like fiction, say “You couldn’t make it up!”, but in this case, she did. Would her books have sold if not for the hard sell and the captivating bait? We’ll never know because we didn’t have that option. So, did she really earn her money or was it just taken from people under false pretences?

I learned by reading and practicing. I started out by rewriting my favourite books so that I could put myself into the stories and change the stories to make them more applicable to me. This was when I was at school. Progressed to writing screeds of unpublishable rubbish, then on to books worth submitting. My first two novels were published in the US, my first novel in the UK won awards.

You don't get an editor until you are accepted for publication and you have to be pretty damn good to get there. But this is in the fiction market. Non fiction is very different. But reading all the 'How to Write' books in the world won't teach you how to do it if you don't a) read widely and b) you don't have an original bone in your body.

Unless you are Sally Walker, of course.

Me neither. I couldn’t write a short story to save my life. My imagination happens in chunks of 80k + words!

Could they have had an ‘in’ with an agent? I mean, they had someone who could lend them £100000 at the drop of a hat, and someone who owned a barn suitable for living in; that sounds like privilege to me. I’ve heard it’s usually really hard to get an agent and a publisher, but less so if you know someone who can get your work looked at by the right people 🤔

If a copy of HNTDDD does miraculously emerge and it can be proved beyond reasonable doubt that RW was indeed the author, what should happen to the £10,000 RSL Christopher Bland Prize that was awarded to her in 2019?

RSL Christopher Bland Prize 2019 – The Shortlist - Royal Society of Literature