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Topic History of: The Salt Path controversy Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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Jo
The journalist who wrote The Observer article is apparently still investigating, digging in various avenues, and says there's more to come.
Moth puts in an appearance here at around 55:40. I don't know anything about degenerative neurological conditions, but he looks in the pink. But he does imply that he's not always like this, saying “I’m very well this evening” when Sophie Raworth asks him how he is.
Jason Isaacs apparently wondered how Moth could have tackled arduous climbs with only one functioning arm and leg, but Moth had assured him he did. (Jason: "...we're going up these incredibly difficult hills, climbing over things and I can only use one arm and one leg, and sometimes we get to locations and I think "there's no way he did this, it's ridiculous" and then I'd call him and he'd say "well, I did actually"...)
...But in October 2021, Bill says, Moth surprised him with an announcement. “He put his head in his hands and he said: ‘We went to the hospital this week and I’ve been told not to plan beyond Christmas.’” Bill was horrified. “I just went: ‘Oh my God!’ and gave him a big hug.”
Bill’s friend Richard, who asked us not to use his surname, was present for the conversation. “It was extraordinarily emotional,” he recalls. “Bill was close to tears. Moth also told him he thought he would already be dead if he hadn’t been living on Haye farm.”
... When Winn’s third book, Landlines, was published in September 2022, Bill read how, in the winter of 2021, soon after Moth had finished another long walk, a neurologist told him his brain scan was “normal”, implying that the walk had drastically improved the symptoms of his condition. ...
Raynor and Moth Winn aka Sally and Timothy Walker (supposedly). It's not unusual for an author to use a pseudonym, but why would her husband do so?
Jason Isaacs seems star-struck by the husband, of whom there is a brief clip in this video. He definitely seems to be a charmer.
Green Man
hedda wrote: Green Man wrote: hedda wrote: Story today in the Mail questioning whether this couple were even homeless.
I wonder what the legalities are here?
Could this be considered financial fraud? Could readers have a case against not just the publisher but the couple themselves if fiction is falsely presented as truth?
In the 90s in Australia a bizarre case waged in the media over a writer called Helen Demidenko who wrote a supposedly truthful book called The Hand that Signed the Paper about a Ukrainian family that co-operated with the Nazis during WW2. She claimed Ukrainian ancestry.
Turns out she is the daughter of English immigrants, her name was fake and the book was just a hoax but it received numerous literary awards.
But she went on to become a lawyer and now contributes to numerous Oz newspapers.
I agree, the hoaxer of the diaries also got conned by another Nazi collector.
Hitler's Diaries comes to mind. I am amazed how many took the bait on that one.
I thought the Hitler Diaries hoax was really amazingly good fun.
German TV made a great series about the affair at the time. The hoaxer was quite a fascinating character having produced endless Nazi fake memorabilia. I think at the time he owned Hermann Göring's yacht.
hedda
Green Man wrote: hedda wrote: Story today in the Mail questioning whether this couple were even homeless.
I wonder what the legalities are here?
Could this be considered financial fraud? Could readers have a case against not just the publisher but the couple themselves if fiction is falsely presented as truth?
In the 90s in Australia a bizarre case waged in the media over a writer called Helen Demidenko who wrote a supposedly truthful book called The Hand that Signed the Paper about a Ukrainian family that co-operated with the Nazis during WW2. She claimed Ukrainian ancestry.
Turns out she is the daughter of English immigrants, her name was fake and the book was just a hoax but it received numerous literary awards.
But she went on to become a lawyer and now contributes to numerous Oz newspapers.
Hitler's Diaries comes to mind. I am amazed how many took the bait on that one.
I thought the Hitler Diaries hoax was really amazingly good fun.
German TV made a great series about the affair at the time. The hoaxer was quite a fascinating character having produced endless Nazi fake memorabilia. I think at the time he owned Hermann Göring's yacht.
Jo
It looks as if Penguin are standing by the author. According to someone who worked in book publishing for over 30 years, including for Penguin, money now trumps facts in non-fiction book publishing.
"Penguin said release date of On Winter Hill would be changed in order to ‘support the author’ after allegations that Raynor Winn lied in her bestselling memoir"
Another complication, also present in the Bookseller’s survey of professionals, is publishers’ deference to authors, particularly those in whom they have most significantly invested. In my experience, publishers will go to great lengths to avoid difficult conversations with authors.
I witnessed this first hand at Penguin Random House a couple of years ago when Wifedom, prize-winning author Anna Funder’s acclaimed biography of Eileen Orwell, faced public criticism from experts over historical inaccuracies.
Although the publisher and the author eventually agreed to correct these in future editions, the in-house concerns I observed were first and foremost to defend and protect the reputation of a valuable author. In such an atmosphere, to raise any qualms about the authenticity of an author of the hugely money-spinning status of Raynor Winn would require some chutzpah.
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