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?

A sample...

The Jason Arday scandal begs the question as to why PRH haven't yet washed their hands of the fraudulent duo and consigned OWH to the dustbin of history. What are they waiting for? Why bother to market OWH for publication in late Jan 2028 if PRH have no intention of publishing it?

My view is they'd like to do that, but will be waiting for a moment when it is less likely to be noticed (NOT now, with lots of comparisons being made to Arday) or when they can hang it on some reason that's not their fault. Eg Moth has deteriorated and it now seems insensitive to put this narrative out there, want to respect his privacy now, so cancelling OWH out of respect..

Hi everyone...just popped in to see if the thread was still going...and it is! The charabanc is indeed made of sturdy stuff. Just out of interest, is this the longest thread on Mumsnet? And should @DisappointedReader be getting a Guinness World Record certificate? I hope so!

Wonder what GA thinks nowadays!

https://x.com/Dani_Auso/status/1917607328842477961?s=20

Much, much less publicity for a start. JA rode higher and had further to fall. Mysterious elite institution that’s still romanticised and resented in equal measure with egg on its face and reviewing recruitment processes. Everyone who didn’t get into Cambridge, or whose child didn’t, gets to think ‘Ha!’ It’s not just one journalist with a nose for a story, either — JA is also being investigated by Cambridge (or was, and many Cambridge academics are still calling for it), previous universities he worked at, and every journal he’s ever published in, and institutions like the THE, charities he claimed to have fundraised for.

And unfortunately he also sits in the middle of the culture wars, because one of the first investigators of his plagiarism is a racist who thinks black people are intellectually inferior, so alas, the JA case gives ammunition to a lot unpleasant people, including those who don’t like any research, even the best -quality, original kind, into barriers black kids encounter in education.

It’s a bigger story than TSP, with bigger fallout. It’s probably pure chance that it hit the media at a point when S and S thought it was too late to pull the book — as in, if it happened a month earlier I think they’d have pulled it. And/or JA is all lawyered up. He certainly sent threatening legal letters to a journalist.

It occurs to me that it’s possible PRH are delighted because it’s eclipsed SW and her grubby little lies. TSP is no longer the biggest ‘should have fact checked’ show in town.