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 had hoped there wouldn’t still be a demand for new copies of TSP. It’s such a pity.

@HatStickBoots in one of the book groups I heard one of the members say that they had heard that TSP has been reprinted for a third time since OC's expose in The Observer, this person also said they felt very disappointed that readers have not being deterred from reading the book since the real truth (not SW's and TW's version of 'their truth") was revealed. Could this be a reason for the new cover art - ditch Angela Harding (post SW's shoddy treatment of AH and AH removing links from IG); there is now limited mileage in the film tie in cover (the film being dead in the water in the uk?) so new cover art to appeal to a new readership? Even though the new art work looks AI generated (aka AI slop)

Judging by comments on her recent instaguff post it seems there remains an audience for her inspirational lies.

Photo is a backpack on a bench with the caption "Just me and my rucksack. So good to be back on the Path."

She replied to a couple of comments...

Urgh

Thanks for that @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree .. note that it’s “so good to be back on the Path again” but “sadly” it’s just her sans Moth. Well, why? Unsurprisingly there’s no explanation.

It sounds like pre-publication publicity for OWH, to me. Hopefully, this time, Penguin will not publish. It is interesting TSP, with new cover, is on sale in The Works - it does mean the mainstream sellers couldn't budge them, anyway.

And she's fairly noticeable. Plus it's the busiest time of summer. Has ANYONE seen her out and about 'back on the Path'? I mean, anyone can take a picture of a rucksack and tell the world that they are walking - doesn't mean they are really doing it.

It sounds like a rewrite too...or an addendum "mistakes were made, but heinous accusations were also made, and the path healed me again".

The Works thing isn't quite right - the contract for selling in the Works is separate. They don't take 'remaindered' books, they take their own version of current books - different sales rights. So they might have books republished with a different cover and they have a different printing process (thinner paper usually, a cheaper production).

They've got some of mine and they tend to take 'older' books, so not the current top sellers, and pay a lump sum for the rights.

Unless she's mysteriously completely unrecognisable without Moth's upright silver quiff, array of cravats and bandanas, and tendency to engage passersby in lengthy conversations?

I mean, according to TWS, they were recognised in Iceland by some Germans on the strength of TSP having been released in German translation!

Perhaps SW has got a disguising pixie-cut dyed black and left her most recognisable spousal accessory at home as too outing... Or cosmetic surgery?

Not seen her in North Devon. Not even looking for the non existent pub quiz they did in WWH

Yes, I would be more convinced by current pictures of actual places. A picture of a rucksack proves nothing. I could take a picture of my swimsuit and tell you I'm on holiday - I'm actually sitting on the sofa with the dog and a cup of tea (which is a lot nicer way of spending time, in my opinion).

I’ve never been lucky enough to have seen either of them around. They haven’t even been papped out and about, just door stepped once.
It’s very telling that they didn’t contact their new actor friends over the course of the last twelve months as though no explanation or apology was ever thought to be needed.
The last set of six photos do indeed look set up to provide some picture clues about walking alone and seeding the idea that Moth is just too frail now (although the Daily Mail reporter might disagree). Before she embarked on her solo winter walk, did she publish pictures and engage with people about her frail husband? She still defines herself as being a walker and a writer, so has to push herself out there otherwise that part of the Raynor Winn persona is a failure too. ‘Walks a bit’ is meant to sound self deprecating and humble because she can’t align herself with the people she called “Yompers” and is actually closer to the truth than anybody who feels the need to gush “Oh you!” could possibly realise. Yes, she ‘walks a bit’, takes a photo and then leaves the rest of the story as a blank page for the onlooker to fill in for themselves. All she needs to do is create the illusion of walking, to keep Raynor Winn alive. By keeping Moth out of the way now it’s as though it’s been decided that her declarations of miracle cure will have to be dialled back on, even if that makes her look like a twat, it can be explained away. It’s difficult to retract what was supposedly said by doctors and specialists though….

I suspect all the 'walking' she is doing is round the estate where they live. I doubt very much if she is going anywhere near 'The Path' for fear of people pointing and laughing.

I just opened the book to locate the term ‘Yompers’ because I couldn’t quite remember it and their encounter with the aforementioned characters comes after unexpectedly coming across a table of books being sold for 10p each. She describes the books as ‘trashy’ but because they only have Beowulf to read, they were tempted to find something else and found a copy of Robinson Crusoe.
‘We left pennies and a beach pebble in the honesty box to offset the weight’. What on earth does that mean? Does it mean they didn’t have ten pennies or the equivalent and so put in twopence for example and ‘offset’ the rest with a pebble? How weird. She seems to have included nail biting documents of dishonesty throughout these books which she is prepared to admit to while simultaneously writing swathes of serious misinformation about circumstances and illness with nary a blink of an eye.

@HatStickBoots ‘We left pennies and a beach pebble in the honesty box to offset the weight’. What on earth does that mean? Does it mean they didn’t have ten pennies or the equivalent and so put in twopence for example and ‘offset’ the rest with a pebble?

Here we are - the same old conundrum.

My first thought, as an avid surveyor of pebbles, is: it isn't true because pebbles are mostly the wrong shape to fit in a slot.

Then I think of @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree 's theory re: stealing fudge - it is a distraction away from the worse lies.

Or, you could say, unflinchingly honest and arouses a rather naughty admiration for this intrepid adventurer. who has much to endure. I guess that may have been the view when discussed in book clubs?

It sure feeds into the whole "penniless and homeless" personas she conjured. The reader is no doubt meant to sympathise and excuse such acts. In reality, if it happened, i would expect they left nothing, feeling entitled to a free book.

Yes, exactly! I also tried to visualise what the box must have been like, did it have a slot and a fixed lid and if it did, how did they get a pebble inside? The lid must have lifted up to be able to accommodate a pebble so why the heck put one in in the first place except to write a little story around it that suits the personalities of Moth and Ray. Sally Walker writes fiction and is always thinking of ways in which to present the characters to the readers in various ways, writing narratives with these clues contained. In reality yes, it’s all about distraction as you both say. I also think they didn’t bother to leave anything. Actually, I’ve just remembered that Simon Armitage’s collections weren’t just money. Sometimes people put in little objects, notes and he listed everything he’d been given at the end of each poetry reading, documenting it in his books. Sally could easily have tapped into that whimsy by having Moth and Raynor the two underdogs, place a pebble and some pennies into an honesty box. Awww aren’t they sweet?

As they live so near the coast, being “on the path” could mean walking to the nearest bench on the path, with a flash and a sandwich, and home again!

Why did they need to 'offset the weight' anyway? The honesty box would be opened to see what money was left, not weighed.

Also - it was a book. I could understand defrauding an honesty box for something you really really needed; if it was food or water, or even milk, for example. The farm down the road from me has an honesty box for eggs at the farm gate. But a BOOK? Nobody ever died because they couldn't get a book...

So that's just theft.

I agree, “offset the weight”, what a ridiculous concept. Reading that again with hindsight I’m simply reminded of her bookkeeping career in which she fiddled and fudged ‘offset’ her way to £64K of her employers’ money.

Yes @Vroomfondleswaistcoat and @HatStickBoots it is like deception is the default position, the mindset. She always tells us but excuses are made for these blameless victims. It reminds me of "Ellie was cleverer than everyone else" or suchlike, from HNTDDD.

I know it’s a social media term but the explanation of Main character syndrome does fit her personality!

Actually, I wonder whether she meant something rather different, with the 'we left pennies and a pebble to offset the weight'?

With my Devil's Avocado hat (most amusing, slightly smelly now) on, I wonder whether what she actually meant was that they paid the 10p in pennies for the book, but left a beach pebble to offset the weighty contents of Robinson Crusoe - as in to pay homage to the island setting?

I mean, it would be typical of Sal's writing - aiming at being profound and meaningful but missing the mark - to have written something like this.

What a very thoughtful interpretation @Vroomfondleswaistcoat ! 😀

It's the Devil's Avocado. It's a curse, I tell you.