Because I’ve seen so much coverage of this story, I wrongly assumed most knew about it.
Seems some don’t.
Here is a summary and a link to the wiki page
What happened (to summarise) was that a woman wrote a best selling book about how she and her terminally ill husband lost their house due to a bad business deal and because they were skint, just went walking the coastal path. Was all about their ups and downs, how it massively helped his illness. A film was made of it starring Gillian Anderson (X Files woman).
Now transpires that she was a little bit frugal with the truth. That her husband *might* not have been that ill, the house *might* not have been lost due to business dealings but rather fraud she had to pay back, she owned a second home in France and they definitely didn’t have the names they said they had.
I haven't read it, or read very much about this story, except enough to know what you are talking about. (Also I currently have quite bad brain fog so please bear with!). In fact it was highly recommended to me (back when?) by somebody who has turned out to be one of those people who removes "the light Paper' from shops and puts them in the bin. (I think this may have slightly affected my judgement about it!).
Anyway, this is throwing up questions for me about the nature of writing and stories. I mean so what if it's fiction and not actually a memoir? Why wasn't it just labelled fiction in the first place? Has this all been done for extra publicity? I can see why people feel duped, but on the other hand, I'm sure I've read books (can't think of an example right now) that start with "this is a true story" or similar, and they obviously aren't . How much does this take away from the book as a work of fiction?
BTW I'm open to being corrected or enlightened on any of these points, please do!
My brain has run out of thinking power for now. Just to say, I totally get what you're saying about how it's so difficult to know what's true any more. (Maybe the Guardian readers are finally having their epiphany on this lol). I suppose I think there's a difference between writing a "true story" that turns out to be fiction, and the media and politicians repeatedly out and out constantly lying about things that directly affect our lives, to the tragic detriment of those that believe them. But yeah-
Anyway, just to say, thankyou for your clear and truthful writing. Your increase in quantity is not affecting the quality! I find reading it helps me in times of mental fogginess, it somehow cuts through, (but maybe I shouldnt try to comment lol)
Yes, I agree that it should have been marketed as fiction rather than a memoir. Even the name thing. I don’t remember seeing anything in the books that said pseudonyms are used which they obviously were. Be straight with people. Who doesn’t appreciate directness?
Thanks for you commenting what you say in the last bit about my posts, makes me feel less self conscious when I post a lot. I’m learning that mood based writing (which is sort of what I’d call it 😂) is very much ebb and flow. I want it to be consistent, a steady stream but moods aren’t like that are they? Only a couple of months ago, I felt completely barren. Right now I have 3 posts in drafts, chomping at the bit 😂
Mood based writing - I like it ! Well I haven’t written anything for 2 years 🤣 tbh I used to be like that with songs , a bit like buses , nothing then 3 all at once 🤣 . The only time I thought quality suffered was when I decided to regulate it to one a week . Creativity doesn’t work like that does it ? I’m sure nobody minds if it’s not regular , well I don’t , in fact it’s kinda more honest . … talking of which :
Re the salt path - after going down this rabbit hole today (aka migraine-enforced podcast listening ) I still can’t help thinking the situation is a lot more nuanced than The Observer et al would have us believe. And also - is this just another “health story that doesn’t fit the narrative so we must discredit the author and make her out to be a bad person “ . hmm , my cogwheels are still grinding on this one and I think I may need a tinfoil hat on
Re writing, I probably should have a few Substacks really with the different types of stuff on that I write. But it all seems such a ball ache to sort out, I cba.😂
Yes - to all of this. I never read it, nearly went to see it but then all the shit came out. It made me reflect on how nothing is sacred anymore. How memoir, which is meant to be based on your own truth, can become fiction and dupe everyone. We can't trust anything or anyone that is 'big' in the world. We can only trust ourselves and those we can look in the eye with a knowing that they, too have walked their own true paths. Thank you, Julie for writing this.
👏Couldn’t have put it better myself but it’s a worry that there are still far too many people out there believing everything they see and hear, especially the MSM watchers and listeners. They still believe everything they say is gospel.
I don’t know how to make my friends more cynical without falling out with them..sadly our conversations now avoid “difficult” subjects.
I'm late to the party and haven't read the comments yet, so please excuse me if I'm repeating the obvious.
But.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. WTF is going on and no, we can't trust anything we see or read 'from the media' (social and 'conspiracy' included) - I think the deep faking is going on left, right and center.
The flipside of the fckery is that we're left with our own discerning. Our intuition. Our path, as you say.
Yes, lots of deep faking and other shenanigans all around, sadly. And absolutely hone that intuition Nina! We can’t really trust anything else these days. :)
Yes yes and yes to this whole peice!! You really captured what I have been feeling about everything nowadays!! I especially loved this qoute:
"Reality and fantasy are so closely woven and interchangeable these days, that life in 2025 feels like one big acid trip."
What is real, what is fake?! This is why I avoid certain conversations anymore...because no one knows what is true and the whole bloody thing totally feels like a massive acid trip 🤣😂😂 I love this peice so much you did an incredible job on it!! 💓💓💓
😊Thanks, you’re in Canada, right? (I think!) I wasn’t sure if you’d heard about the book and surrounding scandal. Still, even if not, i suppose the sentiment is relatable.
I havent heard of that book before but even so your peice was definitely relatable!! I really felt the message!! Now I want to investigate the book!! ❤️🔥
Hmm, I refuse to get my knickers in a twist about this. The fact that the media are currently and persistently expecting me to give a shit makes me very much want to do the opposite.
Yes, I read the book a year or so back. I welled up a couple of times, but it didn’t change the way I viewed the world. I didn’t bother with any of the follow ups. I went to see the movie though. I always thought that I wouldn’t have got on with them if I bumped into them on the walk. Something sanctimonious and irritating about the pair of them, but the writing carried it well.
Btw, I hope that it’s obvious that everything I say below is being levelled at the general readership of the book, not at Julie Dee and her article.
Their real names: A non issue to me. Writers have used nom de plumes forever. If I had the surname Walker and I wanted to sell a book about hiking that was full of quirky coincidences, I’d have a pen name too. It’s a bridge too far.
Her “criminality”: The most problematic element, because truth and integrity are important to me - but so are good stories. She had to make her and Moth out to be more sinned against than sinning for the narrative to hit like it did. She most likely actually felt that way and still does. If any of us were going to write our own memoir, there’d be omissions, elaborations, fabrications. I’m not going to clutch my pearls and act like I’ve personally been betrayed. I do think she should have been upfront about the causes of their financial misfortunes. She seems a decent enough writer to pull it off. Who wouldn’t shit themselves if they thought they were going to prison? There are many people who find themselves homeless “through no fault of their own” - but there are plenty more who find themselves homeless because they’ve seriously and repeatedly screwed up in life. Do I have any less compassion for the latter? No, I don’t believe I do. It’s horrible for you however you got there.
Moth’s Corticobasal Degeneration: At no point in reading this book did I get the message “hey, this is how we suggest people should treat this condition. Stop taking your meds. Go walking instead.” Maybe subsequent books leaned into this element more, I don’t know, but if you thought The Salt Path was a medical self help book, that’s on you. Either he was given that diagnosis or he wasn’t. Easy to verify. What I would say, is that if you challenge your body/brain/nervous system by doing something it is not used to, it will be forced to get better at it. That’s how resistance training, anabolism and neuro-plasticity works. Each individual has to weigh up the pros, cons and payoffs of their choices, whether it be diet, exercise, chemotherapy or vodka. If the book inspired anyone to get out into nature rather than bed rot, I refuse to see that as a bad thing.
Did they actually do the walk?: I haven’t heard any evidence about them not doing so. Did they take short cuts and skip bits? Yes, they said so in the book. Did they do a Jimmy Savile equivalent and get picked up by a Rolls Royce after running an 8th of a marathon? I don’t think so. It’s a 630 mile walk. How little of that would they have to have actually done before I lost all respect for them? A 100 mile walk is still a massive achievement that most people will never do.
I totally agree about the wider significance of this “scandal” in our post-truth world. In the same week that we are expected to believe that a client list went from being on the attorney general’s desk to never having existed, the message is that we are absolutely expected to believe it is raining the whole time our necks are subjected to a steady stream of warm piss.
I agree with you that they weren’t advocating people stop meds or anything that could prove risky and there’s no real miracle, just a body and mind adapting.
I also agree that whatever the reason for homelessness, we can still have compassion for someone.
For me, the greatest issue is the lack of transparency and bending of the truth. If you are going to use other names, state it, if you want to write something that isn’t 100% true, say ‘loosely based on a true story’ or just render it fiction.
I read something on FB and her take was that if it raises awareness of homelessness and Corticobasal Degeneration then that’s what matters. Her take was, why are we mad at them instead of politicians who shaft people every day on a much bigger scale. True - but we expect that from them. Did we expect it from these two? No.
And yes, I completely agree they seemed irritating. Listening to the book, her voice got right on my tits actually 😂
I didn’t warm to them particularly. I can be a heartless fucker and get easily bored listening to endless descriptions of illnesses. I don’t want to feel like I’m doing a night shift with Nora the nurse. I get even more bored by descriptions of blisters and ailments brought on by walking, cause I’m thinking all the time “look, no-ones MAKING you do it, love”😂 So why did I carry on reading it? Simple - I’m all about escapism and was invested because they were taking me around Devon and Cornwall, I was in it purely for the descriptions of the scenery. Shallow AF 😉😂 And I kept hoping they’d have more of an adventure than they actually did, too. I meet quirkier folk than they did at the bus stop.
I haven't heard of the Salt Path ,l don't know the film,l have heard people described As the Salt of the Earth, perhaps its relevant to the book.l will see if I can get to listen to it sounds interesting 🤔. Food for thought.Thanks Julie😊 x.
I saw the film and read the book - liked both very much and was dismayed to see the Guardian (such an honest paper …) hit piece headline when I was clearing up in the cafe at work. What you have written echoes my thoughts ‘we just can’t know what’s real or lies now’ :(
I think it was The Observer that did the hit piece. I mentioned Guardian readers because to me, Moth and Raynor embody the essence of them. If I had to place a bet on which newspaper they read, it would be ‘The Guardian’.
Yes I enjoyed the film too but not as much as the book although I thought Gillian Anderson did a fabulous job with the accent.
Agree about Gillian Anderson! When I saw the trailer I didn’t even realise it was her to begin with.
I liked the book better too (often the case!) though I thought the film was a fairly good representation of most of it.
It was the Observer, which as far as I know from working in a store, is the ‘Sunday Guardian’. I just saw the piece as another way of pulling apart a book/movie that made you feel ‘good’ - her take on many things in the book felt like she ‘got’ a lot of the charade we live in… her thoughts on the young soldiers being sent off to fight and possibly die for example.
Whether a fabrication or not the book remains one I like :)
Yes it did. Obviously I don’t know much about the court case but we know courts don’t always deal in justice (whether they did in this instance or not!). I have her second book yet to read too!
For the nostalgia lovers among you, a bit of John Hurt in ‘The Storyteller’. Who remembers it? I used to love it.
https://youtu.be/S3UsL0Tyteo?si=VuU03oO2bMln06KB
John Hurt in anything is worth the time!
Yes he was fab in 10 Rillington Place
Because I’ve seen so much coverage of this story, I wrongly assumed most knew about it.
Seems some don’t.
Here is a summary and a link to the wiki page
What happened (to summarise) was that a woman wrote a best selling book about how she and her terminally ill husband lost their house due to a bad business deal and because they were skint, just went walking the coastal path. Was all about their ups and downs, how it massively helped his illness. A film was made of it starring Gillian Anderson (X Files woman).
Now transpires that she was a little bit frugal with the truth. That her husband *might* not have been that ill, the house *might* not have been lost due to business dealings but rather fraud she had to pay back, she owned a second home in France and they definitely didn’t have the names they said they had.
Some links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salt_Path
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit
I haven't read it, or read very much about this story, except enough to know what you are talking about. (Also I currently have quite bad brain fog so please bear with!). In fact it was highly recommended to me (back when?) by somebody who has turned out to be one of those people who removes "the light Paper' from shops and puts them in the bin. (I think this may have slightly affected my judgement about it!).
Anyway, this is throwing up questions for me about the nature of writing and stories. I mean so what if it's fiction and not actually a memoir? Why wasn't it just labelled fiction in the first place? Has this all been done for extra publicity? I can see why people feel duped, but on the other hand, I'm sure I've read books (can't think of an example right now) that start with "this is a true story" or similar, and they obviously aren't . How much does this take away from the book as a work of fiction?
BTW I'm open to being corrected or enlightened on any of these points, please do!
My brain has run out of thinking power for now. Just to say, I totally get what you're saying about how it's so difficult to know what's true any more. (Maybe the Guardian readers are finally having their epiphany on this lol). I suppose I think there's a difference between writing a "true story" that turns out to be fiction, and the media and politicians repeatedly out and out constantly lying about things that directly affect our lives, to the tragic detriment of those that believe them. But yeah-
Anyway, just to say, thankyou for your clear and truthful writing. Your increase in quantity is not affecting the quality! I find reading it helps me in times of mental fogginess, it somehow cuts through, (but maybe I shouldnt try to comment lol)
Yes, I agree that it should have been marketed as fiction rather than a memoir. Even the name thing. I don’t remember seeing anything in the books that said pseudonyms are used which they obviously were. Be straight with people. Who doesn’t appreciate directness?
Thanks for you commenting what you say in the last bit about my posts, makes me feel less self conscious when I post a lot. I’m learning that mood based writing (which is sort of what I’d call it 😂) is very much ebb and flow. I want it to be consistent, a steady stream but moods aren’t like that are they? Only a couple of months ago, I felt completely barren. Right now I have 3 posts in drafts, chomping at the bit 😂
Mood based writing - I like it ! Well I haven’t written anything for 2 years 🤣 tbh I used to be like that with songs , a bit like buses , nothing then 3 all at once 🤣 . The only time I thought quality suffered was when I decided to regulate it to one a week . Creativity doesn’t work like that does it ? I’m sure nobody minds if it’s not regular , well I don’t , in fact it’s kinda more honest . … talking of which :
Re the salt path - after going down this rabbit hole today (aka migraine-enforced podcast listening ) I still can’t help thinking the situation is a lot more nuanced than The Observer et al would have us believe. And also - is this just another “health story that doesn’t fit the narrative so we must discredit the author and make her out to be a bad person “ . hmm , my cogwheels are still grinding on this one and I think I may need a tinfoil hat on
Ha! Rabbit holes! Layers of the onion eh?
I’m sure we’ll hear more to come.
Re writing, I probably should have a few Substacks really with the different types of stuff on that I write. But it all seems such a ball ache to sort out, I cba.😂
Your writing will come when it’s ready.
I get migraines too so I hear you therex
Yep, I can identify with that. My default, where information fed from ‘official sources’ is concerned, is not to accept it as true.
Indeed
Yes - to all of this. I never read it, nearly went to see it but then all the shit came out. It made me reflect on how nothing is sacred anymore. How memoir, which is meant to be based on your own truth, can become fiction and dupe everyone. We can't trust anything or anyone that is 'big' in the world. We can only trust ourselves and those we can look in the eye with a knowing that they, too have walked their own true paths. Thank you, Julie for writing this.
Yes, it was so believable. If I wrote my real life memories (as I often do on here) so many people would instantly say it WASN’T true😂
Maybe that’s the secret - reality truly is stranger than fiction.
👏Couldn’t have put it better myself but it’s a worry that there are still far too many people out there believing everything they see and hear, especially the MSM watchers and listeners. They still believe everything they say is gospel.
I don’t know how to make my friends more cynical without falling out with them..sadly our conversations now avoid “difficult” subjects.
Thank you:)
Indeed. Yes I have to choose my words carefully sometimes Madeline!
Yes, yes, this!
I'm late to the party and haven't read the comments yet, so please excuse me if I'm repeating the obvious.
But.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately. WTF is going on and no, we can't trust anything we see or read 'from the media' (social and 'conspiracy' included) - I think the deep faking is going on left, right and center.
The flipside of the fckery is that we're left with our own discerning. Our intuition. Our path, as you say.
:) and each other :)
Right, off to read the comments!
Yes, lots of deep faking and other shenanigans all around, sadly. And absolutely hone that intuition Nina! We can’t really trust anything else these days. :)
Yes yes and yes to this whole peice!! You really captured what I have been feeling about everything nowadays!! I especially loved this qoute:
"Reality and fantasy are so closely woven and interchangeable these days, that life in 2025 feels like one big acid trip."
What is real, what is fake?! This is why I avoid certain conversations anymore...because no one knows what is true and the whole bloody thing totally feels like a massive acid trip 🤣😂😂 I love this peice so much you did an incredible job on it!! 💓💓💓
😊Thanks, you’re in Canada, right? (I think!) I wasn’t sure if you’d heard about the book and surrounding scandal. Still, even if not, i suppose the sentiment is relatable.
Oops yes I am from Canada 🤣😂😂 i forgot to add that LOL
Glad I remembered 😊
I havent heard of that book before but even so your peice was definitely relatable!! I really felt the message!! Now I want to investigate the book!! ❤️🔥
Living on The Salt Path, I am aware of a few people who came across this pair. A lot of cracks in the journey part of the story for sure.
Interesting. I imagine there will be more revelations to come.
I have transmitted the little script via Facebook, madam. Please advise of your interest or lack thereof.
I’m not sure what you mean
We spoke earlier of voice acting. I sent you a script.
Hmm, I refuse to get my knickers in a twist about this. The fact that the media are currently and persistently expecting me to give a shit makes me very much want to do the opposite.
Yes, I read the book a year or so back. I welled up a couple of times, but it didn’t change the way I viewed the world. I didn’t bother with any of the follow ups. I went to see the movie though. I always thought that I wouldn’t have got on with them if I bumped into them on the walk. Something sanctimonious and irritating about the pair of them, but the writing carried it well.
Btw, I hope that it’s obvious that everything I say below is being levelled at the general readership of the book, not at Julie Dee and her article.
Their real names: A non issue to me. Writers have used nom de plumes forever. If I had the surname Walker and I wanted to sell a book about hiking that was full of quirky coincidences, I’d have a pen name too. It’s a bridge too far.
Her “criminality”: The most problematic element, because truth and integrity are important to me - but so are good stories. She had to make her and Moth out to be more sinned against than sinning for the narrative to hit like it did. She most likely actually felt that way and still does. If any of us were going to write our own memoir, there’d be omissions, elaborations, fabrications. I’m not going to clutch my pearls and act like I’ve personally been betrayed. I do think she should have been upfront about the causes of their financial misfortunes. She seems a decent enough writer to pull it off. Who wouldn’t shit themselves if they thought they were going to prison? There are many people who find themselves homeless “through no fault of their own” - but there are plenty more who find themselves homeless because they’ve seriously and repeatedly screwed up in life. Do I have any less compassion for the latter? No, I don’t believe I do. It’s horrible for you however you got there.
Moth’s Corticobasal Degeneration: At no point in reading this book did I get the message “hey, this is how we suggest people should treat this condition. Stop taking your meds. Go walking instead.” Maybe subsequent books leaned into this element more, I don’t know, but if you thought The Salt Path was a medical self help book, that’s on you. Either he was given that diagnosis or he wasn’t. Easy to verify. What I would say, is that if you challenge your body/brain/nervous system by doing something it is not used to, it will be forced to get better at it. That’s how resistance training, anabolism and neuro-plasticity works. Each individual has to weigh up the pros, cons and payoffs of their choices, whether it be diet, exercise, chemotherapy or vodka. If the book inspired anyone to get out into nature rather than bed rot, I refuse to see that as a bad thing.
Did they actually do the walk?: I haven’t heard any evidence about them not doing so. Did they take short cuts and skip bits? Yes, they said so in the book. Did they do a Jimmy Savile equivalent and get picked up by a Rolls Royce after running an 8th of a marathon? I don’t think so. It’s a 630 mile walk. How little of that would they have to have actually done before I lost all respect for them? A 100 mile walk is still a massive achievement that most people will never do.
I totally agree about the wider significance of this “scandal” in our post-truth world. In the same week that we are expected to believe that a client list went from being on the attorney general’s desk to never having existed, the message is that we are absolutely expected to believe it is raining the whole time our necks are subjected to a steady stream of warm piss.
I agree with you that they weren’t advocating people stop meds or anything that could prove risky and there’s no real miracle, just a body and mind adapting.
I also agree that whatever the reason for homelessness, we can still have compassion for someone.
For me, the greatest issue is the lack of transparency and bending of the truth. If you are going to use other names, state it, if you want to write something that isn’t 100% true, say ‘loosely based on a true story’ or just render it fiction.
I read something on FB and her take was that if it raises awareness of homelessness and Corticobasal Degeneration then that’s what matters. Her take was, why are we mad at them instead of politicians who shaft people every day on a much bigger scale. True - but we expect that from them. Did we expect it from these two? No.
And yes, I completely agree they seemed irritating. Listening to the book, her voice got right on my tits actually 😂
I didn’t warm to them particularly. I can be a heartless fucker and get easily bored listening to endless descriptions of illnesses. I don’t want to feel like I’m doing a night shift with Nora the nurse. I get even more bored by descriptions of blisters and ailments brought on by walking, cause I’m thinking all the time “look, no-ones MAKING you do it, love”😂 So why did I carry on reading it? Simple - I’m all about escapism and was invested because they were taking me around Devon and Cornwall, I was in it purely for the descriptions of the scenery. Shallow AF 😉😂 And I kept hoping they’d have more of an adventure than they actually did, too. I meet quirkier folk than they did at the bus stop.
I haven't heard of the Salt Path ,l don't know the film,l have heard people described As the Salt of the Earth, perhaps its relevant to the book.l will see if I can get to listen to it sounds interesting 🤔. Food for thought.Thanks Julie😊 x.
It tells you more here. The back story and then what happened more recently.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salt_Path
Thanks Julie for the information.😊 x.
I saw the film and read the book - liked both very much and was dismayed to see the Guardian (such an honest paper …) hit piece headline when I was clearing up in the cafe at work. What you have written echoes my thoughts ‘we just can’t know what’s real or lies now’ :(
Yes stay on our own path xxx
I think it was The Observer that did the hit piece. I mentioned Guardian readers because to me, Moth and Raynor embody the essence of them. If I had to place a bet on which newspaper they read, it would be ‘The Guardian’.
Yes I enjoyed the film too but not as much as the book although I thought Gillian Anderson did a fabulous job with the accent.
Agree about Gillian Anderson! When I saw the trailer I didn’t even realise it was her to begin with.
I liked the book better too (often the case!) though I thought the film was a fairly good representation of most of it.
It was the Observer, which as far as I know from working in a store, is the ‘Sunday Guardian’. I just saw the piece as another way of pulling apart a book/movie that made you feel ‘good’ - her take on many things in the book felt like she ‘got’ a lot of the charade we live in… her thoughts on the young soldiers being sent off to fight and possibly die for example.
Whether a fabrication or not the book remains one I like :)
Ah yes, I remember now, like the ‘News Of the World’ used to be to ‘The Sun’ before it fucked up😂😂
Yes, as someone else has pointed out on fb, whether true or not, certainly it raised a lot of important issues such as homelessness.
Yes it did. Obviously I don’t know much about the court case but we know courts don’t always deal in justice (whether they did in this instance or not!). I have her second book yet to read too!