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?

Its ChatGPT generated! 😀 I somehow don't think the Walkers will be wending their way to the US to promote TSP any time soon!

I think that you may have missed the joke.

Yeah, as always.

I agree @HatStickBoots, however much GA might want people to put aside the scandal, I would have thought that seeing the film is going to excite an appetite for more information about the scandal, The film is truly terrible, GA comes over as gormless and without knowing the TSP book, the film makes little sense. Regardless of what GA or JI say now, I don't think they will be able to control what others want to say, I totally agree @Peladon, they will not be wanting to answer random questions and very likely they will try to control the narrative.

As @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree says, the whole thing is a charade, it never happened. I think you are correct @HoppityBun, JI is probably saying what his contract allows him to at this point but as @DierdreDaphne points out, this is coming over as disingenuous. It could be very embarrassing for both actors, if people become interested in the back story of the scandal. It is a shame for all those involved that their work was based on a pack of lies, JI is said to have been paid millions over the years, but says he has no money, he's spent it, so this film could be important to him financially. GA is a multi millionaire and the money is probably less important to her.

Thinking about it from a professional actor’s point of view, as far as I can imagine… they have had their Oscar wins snatched away from them because the really juicy roles would have been the ones we know now to be the truth.

Very good point @HatStickBoots, I hadn't even thought about the awards that they hoped for, the real story would make for far better roles. It's not the actors fault that the whole thing was based on lies, but we can't all just pretend that it's still true, so the film can be credible, It just isn't and however much they want this film to stand alone and be seen as a beautiful love story, it can't be. What are the film makers going to say, how heart warming is was to tell Sally and Tim's story to the world, love over adversity?

The piece @Vroomfondleswaistcoat posted a while ago, girlfriend explains TSP, excellent and American. I'm sure there will be other commentators who will pick up on the story and have a field day :)

@Freshsocks - thank you for getting the ouija board out and summoning me back to the thread! I was also struck with the similiarities between the JA scandal and the TSP, although I actually think that JA might actually have some kind of personality disorder that predisposes him towards fantasy. I do not cut SW the same amount of slack - I think she is far more calculating.

Good to see you @Vroomfondleswaistcoat, I've been drifting in and out of consciousness trying to consume all the cider ice lollies that I've perfected :)
JA does seem to be some kind of fantasist and I agree that Sally is far more calculating in her actions, her power to manipulate people is unsettling.

I can’t find it on the website but unsurprisingly The Guardian has an article on GA and JI’s comments. I think they are contractually required to do promotion work so are probably hating the interviews as they have to gloss over Tim and Sally’s actions. I imagine inside they are seething at how it’s all turned out and the impact on their reputations. I wish Chloe could turn up at the US Premiere to ask them probing questions!

I am a little on the fence about the film.

While I don't want Sal to profit in any way from her mendacious ways, I see film as a different animal to the book. So many books have been turned into films watched by people who never even knew there was a book in the first place that I think it's a separate entity.

Of course, if Sal sold the film rights she won't be getting any more profit from the films, however much they are viewed and the film is marketed as 'BASED on a true story' rather than actually 'true' as the book is sold. So I am prepared to cut GA and JI a little slack for the whole debacle.

https://www.moviescenecanada.com/post/firstlook-gillian-anderson-and-jason-isaacs-star-in-the-salt-path-coming-soon-to-theatres

Looks like the North American promotion may be avoiding making claims that the story is "true".

I hear you but I can't cut it any slack. Even considered as a fiction it is a ridiculous story that still perpetuates the idea that nature can cure terminal disease. On top of that, the film is terrible with unbelievable characters and dialogue. If I were GA or JI I would not include it in my best work. As great as both are, I felt their acting was done a massive disservice by a poor script and having to mimic two people who are merely badly formed chactacters in their own fictional reality. It belongs in the sea along with books.

I agree with everything you say, apart from dumping it and the books into the sea! We want to keep that as free from shit as we can. Certainly don’t want to upset Surfers against Sewage.

Just had a chuckle to myself thinking about Eco warrior Moth having to make a stand about his own wife’s contribution to the appalling pollution of British waters. Naturally I don’t really think Eco warrior Moth is anything more than a Ken doll in a discarded Action man outfit.

You are probably right, I haven't actually seen the film. But if we view it as a fiction (as it isn't touted as actually being "true", only "based on a true story") then the happy ending illness cured by nature is only as awful as any other artificially manufactured happy ending in cinema.

I must be getting crabbier as I get older, but the comments from GA and JI annoy me, both come across as bland and asinine. With JI saying “that much of it is still completely valid” completely misses the point that the basis of the book (and then film) was that the couple lost their home through no fault of their own. Which has now being completely discredited, the loss of their own was a result of their criminal activity. It must be very embarrassing for JI to now recall how he announced on the One Show that the Winn's homelessness was caused by 'Cooper' Whereas the true facts of the matter can be read in the court documents.

I find GA's “It sucked, and continues to suck.” annoying and utterly bland in equal measure. It probably does "suck" for her that the inconvenient truth has gatecrashed the fake reality created by SW to cover her past embezzling activities, which will have impacted on the films popularity and potential box office takings.

It sucks - it must have 'sucked' for the Hemmings, who provided SW with a job, and invited the Walkers into their own home.

It sucks - It must have sucked for the Hemmings finding that despite whatever work they did their business seemed to be inexplicably haemorrhaging money.

It sucks - It must have sucked to find out that the person who had trusted and employed had been systematically embezzling money from your business for a very long time.

It sucks - it must have sucked in order to regain the stolen money to have to sign an NDA because of the knowledge that taking the legal course of action would not necessarily result in regaining the stolen money.

It sucks - It must have sucked for Martin Hemmings to have his faith in human nature utterly destroyed.

It sucks - It must have sucked for SW's Mother to have what was in her bank account to be stolen by her favourite daughter, and to be made completely pennyless.

It suckes - It must have sucked for TW's parents to have their daughter-in-law steal the majority of their life savings, consigning them to an unhappy retirement in an area they did not intend to be living.

It sucks - It must suck for the nephew and nieces that came forward to reveal the dishonesty of SW & TW and the impact that it has had on the families, knowing full well both have lined their pockets and got away with the wrong-doing.

It sucks - It must have sucked for Bill Cole to have is kindness and generosity abused and pettily thrown back in his face in one of SW's later books.

It sucks - it certainly must suck for all CBD patients and their families to see an individual pretend to have that disease, and it must be hurtful for any sufferer who was then told to walk it off, you'll get better.

It sucks - it certainly sucks that PRH still avoid doing the decent thing and either rebrand the SW books as fiction and/or withdraw OWH from publication, as they do not want to be seen as killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

It sucks - that such a large number of us were hookwinked into believing the books and the film

But what really sucks for me is that two actors, who I am assuming are intelligent individuals cannot see beyond the bottom line of a films box office return. Who can go into print and utter borderline offensive platitudes because they cannot admit the TSP project was built on lies, which they were also taken in by.

I'm now going to lie down with a box of pear cider ice lollies and a cold compress on my forehead!

What a brilliant post @MrKippling ! I think the two actors are completely gutless with their understatements that took a year to plop out. I think everything seems to hinge on Tim’s tentative diagnosis contained in those two letters which seem to act as some sort of shield. What a joke. “Much of it is completely valid”? Maybe actors live in cloud cuckoo land most of the time.

I’ve actually come to make a request to @ThompsonTwin . Could you ask your chat GBT to create an Eco Warrior Moth doll complete with skinny plait and army trench coat? Optional accessories and features: twinkly eyes, copy of Beowulf etc Or would that cause a lawsuit?

True...But. Said fiction would not exist without the book and its bollox. And said fiction, even somehow wrenched from anything to do with the book, is clearly within the realm of heartwarming, down-to-earth real life drama, not fantasy. Just by way of example, The Full Monty was believable and sticks to the realm of reality. The Last Bus (with Timothy Spall) also. I think you should watch The Salt Path, go ahn go ahm go ahn...

Weeeelllll....I would watch it, but I've got this oven to clean. And then the toilet needs a scrub. And I have to squeeze the dog's anal glands, so, you know....

...maybe one day.

@MrKippling But what really sucks for me is that two actors, who I am assuming are intelligent individuals cannot see beyond the bottom line of a films box office return. Who can go into print and utter borderline offensive platitudes because they cannot admit the TSP project was built on lies, which they were also taken in by.
I'm now going to lie down with a box of pear cider ice lollies and a cold compress on my forehead!

Spot on - it's you that's on the money.

Not sure about the cider, but JI and GA seem to have consumed a massive amount of fudge.

New IG post from Sal a couple of days ago. Claims to have been walking during a heatwave. Photo seems to be of Pendour Cove near Zennor on the SWCP!

"Hiking through a heatwave has been tough going, but it's hard to complain when this is the reward."

Interesting, thanks @ThompsonTwin .

Stunned to see the news about Jason Arday being found dead. No matter what he did, it is very sad.

This is largely why I didn't want to discuss him on the thread. Jason was a completely different personality to Sally and Tim Walker. He had a great deal of vulnerability and fragility about him and today's news has not surprised me at all. He wasn't motivated by greed like the Walkers. His actions needed to be seen within his individual psyche. Together with the colour of his skin and background, the disabilities and experiences he claimed also made him very useful to the likes of Cambridge on a diversity drive. Questions must be asked and answered. How much care was taken of him? The sort of attention - the very public dismantling - was always going to be a very risky time for suicide for someone like him. May Jason rest in peace and my thoughts are with those who genuinely cared about him.

For anyone feeling similarly: Samaritans - Call 116 123 Free, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Samaritans | Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy | Here to listen