The Salt Path

[Mothership4two]

Anyone planning to go and watch this? And did you read the book? I am hoping to go in the next couple of weeks. There are four of us going, two have read it and two haven't. Looking forward to the scenery as much as the story.

Hopefully seeing it at the cinema later today so will report back.

Well, DS and I went to see it. At 15 he was way the youngest in the cinema, but he actually loved it. I think we both loved it for the scenery and backpacking aspects, as we're avid walkers. I agree GA's performance wasn't too great- she just comes across as really bloody miserable! I did think the tensions with Polly were quite subtly illustrated.

And no, you don't get rabbits quite like that on the coast path- and neither is there a reef with clear deep water that you can free dive with no mask straight off a flat sandy beach! 😆 (We do genuinely get leatherback turtles popping up in Cornwall though- more frequently so as the sea gets warmer).

I liked the book. The only thing that makes me want to see the film is the beautiful scenery.

I’m going this afternoon.

I read the book when it came out and frankly found it pretty absurd in places. The only way they could have lost their home is if they used it as collateral for a business loan, or set up as sole traders for the benefits that would bring them. So basically, a poor business decision. The book was very woe is me, not out fault, taking no responsibility for their actions.

I’ve walked a lot of the south west coast so from that perspective, I’m looking forward to the scenery

My grumpy, phone obsessed teenager is currently responding to his WiFi ban for not doing chores by lying on the sofa and reading the Salt Path 😆

Jesus wept, poor kid 😉

Ask him what he thinks of the mystifying unfunny running Simon Armitage gag?

The film prompted me to read the start of the book (as an Amazon sample!) So the film kind of makes more sense now. It's how she writes. Short sentences. One letter. A court date. Then gone.

That kind of thing. (I'm paraphrasing). Tell us moooore Raynor!

Tbf, she does say she asked for an appeal after her evidence was rejected but the judge said the case has been going on for too long. Which I thought kind of spurious. It may have been their evidence wasn't as strong or as relevant as they hoped, otherwise it seems a bit of an odd reason to reject an appeal.

Anyway, they definitely turned a negative into a positive, so good for them.

you don’t lose your home and livelihood like that unless you’ve seriously screwed up. And Raynor Winn does seem to like to play the blame game, first off with the friend who allegedly screwed them over with the business, and later with the friend who let them stay in her property.

I very strongly got the impression that yes they were probably a bit naive but also motivated by making money to fund their farm and laid back life style and didn’t take their responsibility seriously as business owners.

true, She has now turned it into a nice business, writing more books about walks.

I hated the book because she really cannot write. The style was horrible.

I enjoyed the film more for the scenery and performances.

It was 'OK'.

I thought the vignettes that took the piss out of people were a bit much considering the fact that the decision making and sometimes honesty of the couple were in question - use of campsite facilities without paying, and they were actually camping unlawfully. Locals must get sick to death of it.

Yes, what on earth was that about? Did her editor not pick that up?

He or she may well have thought it was funny, or, alternatively, said ‘Raynor, this is going to make the reader throw the book across the room’, to be met with ‘But it actually happened!’

I can’t believe they just literally camped on the path - if everyone just did that it would become so degraded. Just yuck. I thought the pissed off local had a point though we were supposed to sympathise with them.

It's a while since I read it but there was a part where they stay at a campsite and refuse to pay because (something like) "the campsite is mainly air anyway and we should be able to stay for free" - no thought that people who run campsites provide a service and need to make money. Everyone can't stay for free. That annoyed me.
I was quite keen to see the film but I think I'll wait til it streams now as I am not that keen.
The book covers are very beautiful.

Particularly as they’d been running their farm as a B and B/ campsite previously! I wonder how they’d have reacted if people had expected to use their facilities and property for free. I do think Raynor Winn comes across as quite entitled and unpleasant. I also didn’t like the attitude towards the other homeless; she thought she was a cut above them.

She sounds so ghastly that I actually want to read the book now 😄. I'll pick it up next time I see it in a charity shop.

I've now seen it at the cinema. I enjoyed the scenery and found it quite a relaxing watch, but not deeply engaging - I found my mind drifting to other things from time to time. Obviously I've read the book so I knew nothing too dramatic was going to happen.

With the rabbits - no idea whether their presence was likely for the area, but it was unrealistic that wild rabbits would be so close to humans in a tent - they'd keep their distance. One of the rabbits looked like an exotic rabbit rather than a native rabbit.

I thought the acting was OK, not too irritating. I can't remember now (it was two years ago I read the book) whether all of the people they met featured in the book - some of those encounters came across as too story-like.

DH and I looked at each other and grinned when they went back to the house with the couple who mistook Moth for the poet, as we were reminded of 'Speak No Evil' which happened to be the last film we saw at the cinema.

Would I watch it again at home? I wouldn't rush to but I might stick it on as an undemanding 'background watch'.

I thought she was highlighting how the homeless are treated - how they’re dehumanised?

Well, no. The reason they stayed at the campsite without paying was because they were utterly skint and wanted a shower. They knew they were doing wrong, but they were desperate.

I'm local to the coast path. I know that long distance hikers sometimes wild camp, although I've rarely/never seen them at it. It doesn't bother me an iota- I have never seen any campers leave traces, ever. I feel strongly that the outdoors should be accessible to all, not just the well off, and I would rather 100 people visiting Cornwall on foot and discreetly wild camping than just one driving into Polzeath or Porthleven in a colossal SUV, blocking the roads and staying in a holiday let that should by rights be housing a local family, then leaving a bagful of lager tins and disposable barbecue detritus on the beach for others to clear up.

They are not skint now though. I don't get the impression they paid the campsite back.
Or paid for the fudge bars they stole because the queue was too long.

This is reminding me of some of the Private Eye/ Angela Rayner stuff. "EXCLUSIVE! Deputy Prime Minister is REVEALED to have returned a library book THREE WEEKS LATE in 1989....." 😆

She’s certainly not ghastly (I mean, in the memoir, I’ve never encountered her in RL), it’s just unusually unfiltered, so there’s no attempt to prettify her anger and resentment at their predicament, which she projects at times onto friends who help (but not enough) or people they meet and dislike on the path. I mean, I don’t think she’s aware of this, and I’m not sure self-awareness is a strength of hers, but that’s what it looks like to me. She represents Moth as virtually a saint, shaking hands with the opposing barrister after he’s just lost everything.

I also think they’re a perfect example of what can happen when you retreat inside ‘my little family’ — they clearly lived very much on their farm, and had dropped out of a lot of friendships/family relationships because of renovating, raising children, and running their business, which was fairly all-consuming. When they lost the farm, they had very few people other than their student age children. And realistically, would many friends, however loyal, really want to offer a possibly longterm home to two angry, traumatised, penniless people, one of whom has just had a terminal diagnosis?

Maybe people bob up at her readings holding placards thst say FUDGE THIEF and HAVE YOU REPAID THE CAMPSITE.??

You are joking, right?!?