The Salt Path

[Sadcafe]

Anyone read it and is it a good read

They seemed to be down to the last desperate crust rather often. I listened to Anne Reid reading it. I like her but it was so mournful.

I saw the ad in the cinema. If Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson were in any-old-film-about-a-couple I'd give it a go. I wonder about this one, but I might go and see it. I can't remember the details of the book - well, a bit about a lot of sheep-shearing - so I won't remember enough to see if they keep the film true to the book.

I liked the sound of it, but just got too bored to read on. Probably got half way through. Getting books from the library means you have to read in 3 weeks, or return and I couldn't be bothered to renew.

^^This - I started reading it after a friend gave it to me, saying she had found it incredibly sad and moving. They started to really annoy me, though — the beginning didn’t quite ring true. DP is a lawyer and said the legal situation (with the judge not accepting the evidence in time), would be very unlikely to have happened in the way she presents it. I couldn’t find any real life evidence of the case, either, which would normally be around in the public domain, so I concluded that her name must be a pseudonym, because there’s no trace of her unless connected to the book publication. (Try it — it’s impossible to find out any corroborating evidence about them in real life beyond the book publicity!)

The whole time in the book they seemed to regard themselves as a special case who should be allowed to do things like nick stuff, trespass, wild camp etc. just because they were middle class people in a tight spot! I had to abandon it 2/3 of the way through!

I read it, it was one for our book club so I stuck with it.

Like others, I found them frustrating and annoyingly snobbish. The whole walk starts because “of course” they couldn’t just present as homeless and be put in emergency accommodation until a council flat could be found, they were too good for that. There was a bit later on in the book when they get to a city, and suddenly they aren’t “wild camping”
but “sleeping rough” and she finally seems to get they have been homeless the whole time and really aren’t “better” than the other homeless people just because they were homeless on the coastal path, not in a city/town. Yet still this didn’t seem to trigger them to engage with finding out what benefits they could claim or seeing what help there as from the state. They took their tiny tax credits, and lived in extreme poverty rather than engage with help. Then got angry that middle class people weren’t offering help.

it did make me want to walk the path though, I just wanted to do it like the people they sneered at, with nice hotels, good wine with restaurant dinners and someone dropping my bags to the next hotel I need to walk to (if anyone knows which companies do this, I’d be up for it, sounded delightful - I don’t do camping)

I enjoyed the first book but it’s hard to take the following ones seriously knowing how big a success it was and the money they must have made. Possibly not how it works but I doubt they were penniless any more.

I heard that the manuscript was written by Ray for Moth as a sort of love letter. Then others got to read it and it was suggested that it be published. So it wasn't originally written for public consumption, which might explain some of the unfiltered comments in it.

I've read the book twice and felt more sympathetic on the second reading. On my first reading I was concentrating more on their situation (and there is always the niggle of doubt, due to lack of detail and explanations) but the second reading was more about her love for Moth and the dread of losing him. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to feel for her.

Read it while walking the sw coast path with our luggage being taxi-dropped and staying in hotels. Felt well smug.

I really hated the way she presented everything as someone else’s fault. The whole situation with losing their house sounded so fake. They clearly walked themselves into that and then bleated that they couldn’t afford legal representation despite being in really serious trouble. There is no way that they had a magic paper that would have proved them right about everything but the mean old judge wouldn’t look at it. Just no. Then they couldn’t possibly be expected to live in council temporary housing. Then the benefits they qualified for/didn’t qualify for made no sense. She didn’t qualify for any help because there was nothing wrong with her and she was expected to get a job to live on, but instead they tried to live on the small amount Moth was entitled to, which isn’t supposed to support two adults. They also just waltzed off into the blue and abandoned their student-age children and she was bitchy about them changing degree to something practical rather than an arts subject (unsurprising if the kids were much more focused on making a living, after watching their parents lose their actual home).

I listened to the audio book and enjoyed it, especially the discussions about attitudes to homelessness…how people treated them differently if they said they sold the house vs if they said they were homeless.

I was incredulous that the type of people they seem- slightly hippy, running a small holding- didn’t know how to go camping. and many of their other crazy decisions.

I enjoyed it,but it wasn’t as good as I was hoping it to be (from what others had said).

Highiy recommend reading Wavewalker for anyone who likes this kind of thing @Sadcafe

I enjoyed the audiobook as well and I liked the fact that it wasn’t fluffed up to make the writer into a more sympathetic character.

I’m interested that the audiobook seems to be more popular than the written book as I’ve seen exactly this divide in other discussions on this book. Possibly Winn comes across as a more recognisable person when narrating than in writing.

I liked parts of it because I am walking the path in stages and enjoyed the descriptions.

I didn't like RW. I didn't think she was particularly fair on Moth at points.

i thought they lived off just the tax credits they used to get. They wouldn’t apply for unemployment or housing benefits at the start as they (she) was somehow convinced that was beneath them. It just read they they didn’t think of themselves as like homeless people, until they reached the point they were sleeping rough in a city and no, there was no significant difference with them, and they both started to think sensibly.

I also wondered if this was supposed to be his book, not hers. There’s a small reference to Moth making notes as they went, but then he went back to study and she wrote the book. (And of course he was bankrupt with debtors, makes much more sense for her to be the one earning royalties).

Yes - when I was trying to find out more about them I did find one early interview with them that suggested that Moth’s real name is actually Ray, so I assumed that Raynor is a kind of composite non de plume for both of them. (It would be weird if they are actually Ray and Raynor!)

This.

It’s a work of fiction, every single chapter to be taken with a huge pinch of salt!

I enjoyed it. However I found their inability to be adults annoying.

I have to say I found the book rather dull .

I see what you did there!

They got on my wick, but I read it as I'm Cornish and got a different perspective on places I know well.

She's now making cider near Lostwithiel

I found her monotone delivery more difficult than the writing!

I saw her interview on the one show. She seems pretty keen to make people aware of the plight of homeless people?

I enjoyed the book. Dh has just reread it and I'm going to before seeing the film.

We love long distance walking but stay indoors. We've done some camping and walking. I admire those who carry everything. We carry all our clothes etc.

I'd probably have gone to see the film Friday but we're already out. I'm working all weekend. Maybe next week?

That's quite an achievement since it wasn't released in cinemas until 30th May this year, i.e 3 days ago. Ten days after your post!

AFAIK there were some preview screenings last year - there was one that Gillian Anderson gave a talk at I think

It was a special "work in progress" screening at a hotel in Mayfair.

I guess they must have edited out a lot of the packing up and setting off for another day's walking in the final cut then.