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?

Just saw this brilliant retort by the alleged bullying IG commenter.

Oh thanks so much - RabbitOnTheLoose2 for PM. That poster knows her stuff - unflinchingly honest 🐰

Also just published a new instaguff post of camping items laid out (it's an old photo she posted ages ago pre C2C walk I think).

More saccharine wisdom as if she is a modern day Confucious. "The walk begins long before the first step".

The PR project is clearly underway. Nice to see a comment (now "hidden by IG") saying "Don't forget to embellish and lie about your trip".

@YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree
Thanks for keeping us posted. If this carries on some of the charabancers are going to have to post on IG, or at least tick (she says reluctantly to herself ....)

Also, her IG post featuring her rebuttal and the medical letters has now vanished. Very much playing the "scandal never happened" card.

This is my fear now. She just won't acknowledge any nay-sayers, keep her mouth shut about absolutely EVERYTHING, make all publicity one-note and positivity about the new book and just grey rock everything. It will carry her through the new release at any rate, and then it will just become commenters fighting it out on threads over what she did or didn't do. If she doesn't participate, she can stonewall her way into another bestseller, because many people who bought the previous books will want the full set.

Was it ever on IG? Her rebuttal & the medical letters are still on her website.

www.raynorwinn.co.uk/statement

"The walk begins long before the first step".

Didn't the supposed SWCP walk begin with supposedly no preparation?

Yes

...

Not sure if this article has been posted here before or if the photos are recent. If so, it looks suspiciously like a PR job designed to relaunch her career.

Raynor Winn Net Worth, Books and Life Story - WayMagazine

Unless it's AI generated!

No I haven't seen this before but it is very strange. As if these were the photos that they didn't use before, except one. I notice it is written by Admin, I looked because it sounded like Co-Pilot ....

Also

Public discussion around certain details has appeared over time, but Winn has continued to stand by the core account of the story

which is kind of hilarious. 🙄

Hi @NervesofSteel have you had a chance to look at the posts on IG?

"... memoir writing always raises complicated questions about memory, interpretation, and selective storytelling. Readers occasionally debated aspects of the couple’s financial history or the framing of certain events. Winn has generally maintained her version of the story while avoiding highly combative public responses."

That's one way of putting it.

She is originally from the United Kingdom
To be fair some of it reads like some of the previous journalists : and spent much of her adult life in the southwest of England
She was originally from Wales, Moth's real name is Ray, etc....

Some of those photos aren't even them.

Just looking at them now. First time I've seen SW actually responding to comments. Or one at least, saying 'Sod all the people with the negative comments and just want to dish the dirt on someone successful.[...] Thank you lovely lady' to which SW replies 'Hope life and health are being kind'.

The commenter defending SW, appallingly, refers to health struggles and has a username suggesting she may have Parkinson's Disease.

A comment from the daughter? 'We are your home. For the team, forever.'

'Bugger the naysayers and the British press.'

A poster called 'rabbitontheloose2' (one of us?) civilly disagreeing. Someone called 'mazzagandp' saying 'OMH, what is wrong with people? Total grifters'. a couple of others also dissenting from the general tide of heart emojis.

Someone on the more recent photo of the beautifully laid out camping equipment saying 'Don't forget to embellish and lie about your trip.' and being fallen upon by others.

I saw this happen with a content creator a year or two ago. Ultra woke "TWAW" type whose main source of income was social media. He was revealed to have been sending unsolicited sexual messages to female followers, and also just being a dickhead in general. He posted apologies on his SM pages and said he was getting help. Returned six weeks later, said he had been to therapy, and resumed posting content. Very shortly after, he deleted the apologies and the return post about therapy, meaning no newcomer to his social media would have any idea anything happened. And sadly, it worked. In the social media era, the most lucrative way around a scandal is simply to briefly acknowledge it and then pretend it didn't happen.

Just looking at the most recent photo of the hiking/camping pack laid out like a buffet. Different walking boots to the ones the previous photo depicts her as lacing up. A couple of eggs, hilariously, sitting in the pan.

It reminds me of when a friend of mine in my London days used to do food styling for cookery books. You'd show up at her house and she's have a photographer in and be spraying oil on bread to make the crust shiny or using hidden clamps to make a stacked burger stand up, or using engine oil to pretend to be syrup.

Actually, that's a good question about whether the statement and medical letters were ever on SW's Instagram. They may well have been, but I honestly can't remember. They were also retired onto a much more obscure part of SW;s own website, so it would make sense, as her Instagram followers seem to consist of enthusiastic heart emoji users, for her to retire the awkward evidence of anything untoward completely from her fan base.

There will always be cult members who refuse to wake up and smell the coffee!

That's quite weird, isn't it? Rather like reading a well-researched journalistic takedown of a fraudulent 'medicine' and then going to hear the snake oil salesman anyway and saying you quite enjoyed the spiel...?

I agree with you. However, we have seen some of the local opinions before ... along the lines of - oh what a shame that someone has had to tell the truth and spoil it all. I think it runs deep with some people that the UK is very London-centric so if your local area gets any recognition, praise, importance, then that is some validation.

And, I'll only mention it fleetingly,but I do think it has been reflected in the recent by election in England. Even notoriety, in the case of TSP and some other political events, makes your area important and not completely overlooked. The blinkered devotion does seem shockingly narrow, though.