Thread 27 : 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 26 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:
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? | Mumsnet

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse are always welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from some of Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou's excellent exposé items before posting. Chloe's podcast series for The Observer 'The Walkers' covers most things:
The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer
Another suggestion:
BBC Sounds - Secrets of the Salt Path - Available Episodes
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 nearly a year we have done amazingly well together for 26 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.

We are still here after 26,000 posts and fast approaching our one year anniversary together on 6th July 2026, 12 months on from the start of our first thread in response to Our Chloe's somewhat stunning initial exposé. Little did we know what else would come out. Our longevity comes as both a total surprise and a pleasure (mostly!). We've seen charabancers come and go, come back again, delurk and join us for the first time. All are welcome. Threads have both filled up in a day and moved at a more stately pace. Thank you everyone for sharing your time, thoughts, opinions, experience, questions, sleuthing (there's that word!), kindness (there's that other word!) and great humour with me and with each other. As ever, as we embark on our 27th thread riding the community charabanc - this time all holding our brollies and fans aloft for much-needed shade and breeze - keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider, (but not too much in the current heatwave).

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 26 IS FULL:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5506717-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?

I think the sun is obscured behind Jumping Jack Moth.

But you'd still get flare around our spring heeled friend, unless the sun had gone below the horizon by then.

Perhaps Moth is so majestically large he causes eclipses?

He certainly looks much the same size as Genial Man-Mountain Dave from Up North when they're photographed side-by-side, despite all SW's protestations of him looking all shrunken and fragile in comparison.

There are a few more negative comments on the latest Insta post. I’m glad people are managing to post but frustrated that my comments were being blocked. Maybe because I made a new profile but had no posts or followers so appeared like a bot? Shame as I enjoyed making up names. Doubtful Shed, TickTack, Shara Banks …

Meanwhile, planning to see The Odyssey film which begins with the quote:
“Tell me about a complicated man.
Muse, tell me how he wandered and was lost” I was then horribly transported back to the start of TSP. Only SalRay could steal an epic quote from Homer and apply it to mars-bar-eating-Tim.

@Anythingbutheadlands Only SalRay could steal an epic quote from Homer and apply it to mars-bar-eating-Tim.

She may have mistaken Tim for someone of 'similar appearance'?

Gods and Monsters: Homer's Odyssey - BBC iPlayer

You wouldn't. You can only get flare if the Sun hits the lens, so if he obscured it as a leaping Moth eclipse there would be no flare. Flare can't bend round objects, it is an artefact of direct sunlight coming in at an angle inside a lens.

Could you take such a photo with the sort of camera phone they took with them on LL?

I was a professional photographer for five years & looking at that photo with an experienced eye I immediately thought that it had been taken with the photographer low down looking up. It's probably just a lucky shot although it could have been a still extracted from a video

I reckon so. What is unusual, however, is the lack of blur in Tim's jump. To achieve zero blur in low light for this jump, it would require very accurate timing to capture Tim at the very moment he is neither rising nor falling. If I were to guess, Sal likely used a burst mode on her phone/camera to take a series of shots very quickly. It could be a still from a video but i think the quality of the light enhanced image would be far worse.

One interpretation of what the leaping miracle photo conjured in my mind [Not Generative-AI - just old fashioned photo editing.]

On my phone the photo isn't very clear. Is it definitely someone leaping high in the air, not kneeling on a grassy knoll with his hands thrown in the air? Apologies if that is a very silly question.

I wonder if the TW star jump photo is actually a photo of TW on his knees on the ground with his arms raised upwards, and it has been photo-shopped with him doing this 'bionic' star jump. Looking at the lightened photo, even with a setting sun, surely there would be some shadow on the ground? (I could be wrong)

I forgot to add with my post on the critic's praise of SW's trilogy. If OWN does get published will PRH send advanced copies out for review in order to have the critics praise/comments splashed across the covers and in the book as well. What right minded critic, who probably now be well aware of TSP scandal, OC's expose via The Observer, and the shady, criminal reputations of SW and TW, would be able to take the book at face value and say how honest, unflinching, moving etc. when there is the strong likelihood it will be a bogus book of lies, with sneering, patronising comments about all individuals that SW encounters, and how everyone is inferior to the love shared between SW and TW.

I remember a few years ago there was that it was revealed that publishers were failing to be honest with critics comments used as reviews on book covers, were a review could be damning with faint praise, the damning comments were excluded to just leave praise! I also remember that some authors became cover quoters for hire, from my recollection - step forward the late Terry Pratchett, one such Pratchett cover comment I remember from the 90s was on William Kotzwinkel's The Bear Went Over The Mountain, uk paperback edition "Very funny" commented Pratchett "and probably very true" (I read the book and for me it was no to both) Pratchett later acknowledged he did not read all the books that he provided comment on! Btw - to any Pratchett fans I am not knocking Pratchett, I have read many of his books and enjoyed them, but he did become ubiquitous appearing on the covers of other authors works.

🤣 Love it. Being bucked off! 🤣 These pictures deserve to be published in the new annotated version of TSP!

I've been following along with interest but probably missed a few posts along the way, so apologies as this has no doubt already been asked and answered - is it significant that the blurb for the US film release never at any point says it's true? I'm seeing "drama" and "story" in this article but not "real" - is this a low key rebrand at work?

I think you could be right @ShinyBlueTractor, there is no mention of the film being based on a true story. Maybe they hope to release the film as a stand alone project, separated from the books, but if that is the case, I wonder how they will deal with questions that will inevitably be asked about TSP?

Yes, the facts don't stack up - and can't. So however much the promoters of film and books try to make it a love story of resilience - it won't bear up under scrutiny because at the foundation it is lies.

They're clearly hoping that there won't be any scrutiny or very little. I've noticed already that the synopsis states that they lose their "English" home/B & B business, when, here in the UK, we all know that the said business was in Wales.
Having read TSP and subsequently viewed the film I concluded that the latter's story line would have been unintelligible without having first read the book. The opening beach scene where our heroes struggle to rescue from the sea what appears to be the sails of a boat (but is in fact a tent!) then they suddenly appear riding a bus (the film version omits the confrontation with the loud Americans!) I though would be difficult to follow without knowledge of the "back story".
As I've stated many times, both book and film reminded me of my childhood spent in West Somerset - a very happy one, despite post WWII rationing.
Prior to the Observer's revelations it was clear that the various Tourist Boards were hoping that overseas release of the Salt Path film would act as a soft sell for SW tourism. Even closer to home I read comments from UK residents (after having seen the film) that they "did not realise that we had such magnificent scenery in the UK!"

I wish I had a perfect memory of the film but having only seen it once …. I believe there is a scene which shows the entirely fictional doctor giving his “smug, tight lips” diagnosis of CBD just as it is written in the book. I find this even worse than the lies about the eviction and then cowering under the stairs. Even in interviews she seems to act out a role of suffering ptsd from that supposed episode of their life and also pretending that she’s “blocked it” out. Such rubbish. No decent person would ever pursue anything that would cause a victim to suffer further discomfort, so it was just accepted as fact.

I posted before I’d finished.
The lies in the film, even though based on the lies in the book are a huge problem even if the film is marketed as being a drama and without a mention of the word “true”. Even fiction has to be based on research of facts otherwise people wouldn’t want to bother with it. Something as serious as a terminal illness with no cure cannot just be written about as though it doesn’t matter, it’s just a book, who cares, let’s pretend that this miracle happened because that is just stupid. Unless it’s marketed as a complete fantasy or from the Marvel/DC universe, in which case go ahead.

@HatStickBoots Something as serious as a terminal illness with no cure cannot just be written about as though it doesn’t matter

@ShinyBlueTractor is this a low key rebrand at work?

The marketing reads as though they are being selective with how they chose to describe it, ie, grappling with a devastating diagnosis. They are obviously proud as a team to have created this moving film. It just doesn't work if you listen to the accounts of the people who have this condition. And those, or their loved ones, who have been scammed.

From all accounts OC was recently accosted by the script writer of TSP while swimming in a North London reservoir and abused for having dished the dirt on Raymoth! Don't shoot the messenger!

That's awful!

That is interesting .. so that would be Rebecca Lenkiewicz. I thought it was about time someone involved in the film project made a statement about the scam but because it is being marketed in the US I thought they may still be quiet. I didn't think they would still be in denial.

There’s also a scene involving the fictional Cooper fleeing down the steps of the courthouse!

Oh yes! Thank you. Utterly ridiculous.