Thread 26 : To feel disappointed - and disgusted and vindicated now too - after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 25 IS FULL

Please see the OP of Thread 25 for all the links to The Observer's reporting and podcast series, our threads one to 24 and so on.

After 25,000 posts there are still new things to discuss:
BBC Sounds - Secrets of the Salt Path - Available Episodes
If you are posting about a podcast, please start your post with the episode number you are commenting on, for clarity and to help others avoid spoilers if they wish to do so.

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. The Observer's excellent podcast series The Walkers (link in Thread 25) covers most things.
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, 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. For over 8 months we have done amazingly well together for 25 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.

As ever, as we embark on our 26th thread riding the community charabanc, keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider.

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 25 IS FULL: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5485730-thread-25-to-feel-disappointed-and-disgusted-and-vindicated-now-too-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

I won't go into the sordid details, but I was reminded by the mention of Dragon's Den, this is to do with one of the richest men in this country - David Sullivan who is now facing serious allegations (at last). Karren Brady and Tony Livesey grew their careers within the Sullivan empire. Livesey (5 Live) has been challenged over the Panorama programme regarding his memoir as editor for Sullivan's newspapers.

Livesey:
said in a statement to Panorama that the feature was “categorically” not his idea and that parts of a book he had written, in which the feature was discussed, had been “fictionalised.”

😄 I missed your comment earlier!

As for @NervesofSteel ’s comments 🥹 I’ve remembered that I dreamed about her whisperings and shufflings last night - I was watching endless tapes.. and said to myself something along the lines of being used it it now, tolerating it and being able to listen.. I was hearing her voice so clearly, it seemed not to be a dream!

Yes, but that was just the start!!!

Afternoon all and I hope you are well today.

Good to see Our Simon popping his (non-cardboard) head up again.

"Well zur, that's because the tide wur going out!"
Brilliant, @UpfromSomerset (HTG).

Salray would seemingly have had her readers believe Timmoth could walk on water. I imagine their bottle labels would feature her inspirational quotes such as 'You're salted now', 'Headlands' (sorry folks!) and 'Lit up like a Christmas tree'.

@HatStickBoots, get yourself to immediate therapy! No one should have to live with this!

Why stop there? They could have marketed a brand of cheery Christmas baubles featuring a beaming, be-cravatted TW, so we could all literally have adorable, miraculous Moth lit up on our Christmas trees... Ew.

Oh my word @HatStickBoots! I'm sending off an emergency relief parcel of fudge and cider for you post-haste.

A clothing range of cravats, bandanas, waistcoats, berets and ankle-grazer trousers. A haircare range of electric shock strength hair gel for men and Tenthead/Saltygaleforcewindhead shampoos and conditioners for women. A life size inflatable Moth to pop up from behind the sofa (Only Fools and Horses reference).

I rather suspect the greedy pair had thought of it all.

Actually, I had thought of the fact that Sally Rooney's novels have been marketed (I think just in the US) with tote bags and bucket hats. You can imagine the TSP equivalents. (Didn't TW supposedly have a nasty bucket hat on the largely fictional SWCP walk?)

I think there was an episode of Countryfile years ago that featured a couple who collected fresh air from somewhere in the countryside and sold it in jars. Seemed madness at the time. I wouldn't put it past SalTim bottling up some salted coastal air to hawk to the gullible as well.

https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2016-02-11/man-sells-west-country-air-for-80-a-jar

Clarity in a Jar - not far off "History in a glass".

The article / press release about the film being released in America doesn't make any claim that the film is true (or in any way connected with the truth), and in that one respect it's a nice change.

Thanks for this morsel - I will accept it from you @Peladon , I was going to sound off about the quote from the release - but deleted my post and considered why I was irritated...

It was a year ago that I was becoming increasingly vexed by the wall-to-wall showing of TSP at the local cinemas and was adamant that I would not go. Actually furious when it came to the independent ones. I did not understand why it niggled me so much. I felt some endorsement when someone, who had heard 'Ray' speak, said that how the 'Winns' lost the house didn't hold up.

When The Observer story broke. a few weeks later, we were madly pinging each other while trying to read everything - "have you seen the Mumsnet talk about it" - "reading that now". So thank you @DisappointedReader for keeping up the best thread on this whole issue. I didn't emerge from the bracken until Thread 9 - when Human Kindness was confrontational with one of our posters above.

Thank you for this! I had a look at his past dates in May and I was wrong, he must have come practically to my doorstep much earlier in the year and it’s not on there now. I remember seeing the dates advertised with months to spare and just thought there was plenty of time, subsequently forgot about it until the last minute and it was fully booked. It was one of those very wet and windy dark evenings. I did think about walking down and waiting outside the door like a groupie but didn’t have the guts. Bodmin is an hour’s drive away or two on public transport. It seems like a perfect place, the ancient church.
I had another thought. Last year the tickets to the premiere screening of TSP were sold out quickly and were more expensive because “Raynor Winn” was making an appearance and meeting and greeting. I expected her to be wandering around the town during the day as it’s such a lovely town, but I didn’t spot her. It occurred to me today to pop into the venue and ask how it went, did she appear, how did she/they seem? Etc, because of course she knew about Chloe’s investigations by then. So next time I pass, I will, hopefully tomorrow.

Thank you for the support and extra rations due to my dreams!

I suppose without the aura of hard-won, RL truths, indigence and saltedness, with a side order of medical miracle, we're just left with a film about Scully/Thatcher/Miss Havisham going for a walk with Draco Malfoy's dad.

Thank you for your kind welcome. I will do my best to ensure a plentiful supply of cakes. I'm a dab hand a tray bakes (brownies, blondies and tiffin) and loafcakes (banana and chocolate chip is a favourite of mine) as an aside my Great Grandfather was a baker and confectioner.

Regarding the Walkers TSP 'fortune' I wonder how much they received for the rights to film TSP. Although an agent will take taken their percentage, I'm sure there must have been some money in it for them. Wasn't SW (under her pen name) listed as a producer? There must be some form of income from dvd/bluray release and streaming, as well as the hoped for US release. Part of me thinks that TSP will be too parochial for the US market.

One of the many things I think of regarding the Walkers 'story' is SW's post 16 education. I've read on these threads that SW did not perform well at school, and we are all familiar with Sixth Form College and Mars bar tea dunking scene. I don't think it could have been a Sixth Form College. As in the 80s I was a student at a FE College and then in the 90s I worked in one. Back in the 80s (after leaving school) I went to my local college to do my O and A Levels (school wasn't my forte) From what I remember Sixth Form Colleges were usually attached to schools, with the aim to get their students to pass A Levels and then onto university. At 20 I do not believe TW would be at a Sixth Form College. The college I attended had a large number of vocational courses including building (which TW could have attended) and legal secretary courses (which SW could have attended) which would have enabled SW to get work at the courts (from what I remember) I remember from The Observer podcast 'Anne' mentions that SW was studying a law degree. In the 80s it was possible that a persons work would provide them a route into studying via Accreditation For Prior Learning (APL) or another alternative route could have been undertaking an Access course, which was a option for maturer students to gain access into Higher Education. Just some idle thoughts there.

And regarding the recent DM article, I forgot to say, it seems to me that all of the Walker quartet have this irritating smug smirk! I just had to get that out of my system!

I wish there was a ‘laugh’ and ‘shock’ reaction available!
@NervesofSteel has just summed it up perfectly for the American market!
@DisappointedReader yes! I love the Only Fools and Horses references!
@MrKippling yes, that irritating Walker smug smirk. Some collages in the ‘80s were an option for you to take your A levels there if you wanted to leave school but on site were other collages where you could take other subjects and I’m guessing they had a communal canteen.

Ironic that Moth (born July 1960) will become an OAP later this year and eligible to start drawing his state pension!

I wonder if he will qualify ... I think it is 39 years of contributions. He would get credits for his horticultural course(s)! But there may be significant gaps due to his herding experience in the Americas?

To get a full pension requires 35 years of NI contributions &/or credits. You can purchase any missing years at very advantageous rates that would be easily affordable from the loot that the Walkers have accumulated over the last few years.

He'll probably celebrate with a marathon session of star jumping and trig planking!

Fact stranger than fiction that the free-spirited boy who never grows up and can fly is due to retire.

Just sharing this post again because of the picture. It occurred to me that I saw those faces and expressions as being very brave, making the best of a bad situation, swallowing their pain etc and that’s the message in TSP. The reality makes me look again, to seek out any expression of remorse, anger, fear, but there is none. This is a photo of a happily married couple on holiday. Tim is showing no annoyance or anger with Sally for making them lose their house and she doesn’t look like she gives a crap either. She looks as though she’s decided to put the past behind her and march forward because that’s all they can do. All very healthy motives that we are all supposed to aim for in life. In hindsight she looks smug and confident. Basically, two brass necks on holiday who must have both cooked up the plan to steal from Martin Hemmings and both sets of their parents because otherwise their marriage would surely have cracked and losing their home would have been the final straw. Thinking too about the comment in this article on Tim’s appearance and demeanour, a healthy looking man showing no signs of a debilitating illness. On Winter Hill was written two winters ago and we all know the subject matter and that it’s complete nonsense. The money from the pre-orders is sitting in various bank accounts gathering interest.

I will do my best to ensure a plentiful supply of cakes. I'm a dab hand a tray bakes (brownies, blondies and tiffin) and loafcakes (banana and chocolate chip is a favourite of mine) as an aside my Great Grandfather was a baker and confectioner.

Happy days, it looks like we now have a Correspondent for Cakes. <stomach rumbles>

Edited to remove accidental duplicate post.