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Like the camping they did on the South West Coast Path, the real true story of Moth and Raynor Winn is wild. Instead of falling victim to financial and physical problems, as Raynor chronicled in the 2018 bestseller The Salt Path, Tim and Sally Walker — their actual names — were only the victims of their own misdeeds, embezzling £64,000 from Sally’s employer, then “borrowing” £100,000 from Tim’s relative to pay off Sally’s debt. Plus Tim was reportedly diagnosed with a terminal degenerative disease, but was then miraculously cured by the 630-mile trek they undertook (while dodging collectors). The lies came crashing down over the weekend, when The Observer did what no one thought to do till now: fact check the story! So now the £164,000 question is, who should’ve done this digging before? Well, the producers of the film adaptation, which came out in May in the UK, are flatly denying any culpability. They say they made a “faithful” adaptation of the book, of which there was no known fraud when they optioned the material, so please direct all inquiries to the author and/or publisher, thankyouverymuch.

Responding to a bombshell investigation in The Observer that questioned many of the claims made in the movie’s source material, a spokeswoman for Number 9 Films and Shadowplay Features said: “There were no known claims against the book at the time of optioning it or producing and distributing the film.”

The producers were only made aware of allegations at the end of last week when contacted by The Observer journalist who wrote the investigation, they added.

Starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, the movie is an adaptation of a supposedly true-to-life book about Raynor Winn and her husband Moth Winn’s journey along the South of England coast after they lose their home and Moth Winn is diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration.

The Observer’s report alleges that Raynor Winn, whose real name was revealed to be Sally Walker, was once arrested after being accused of stealing tens of thousands of pounds from her employer. This is never mentioned in The Salt Path book, which instead says that Raynor Winn and her husband lost their home after being taken advantage of by a childhood friend of Moth Winn’s. The events surrounding the loss of their home are also disputed by the report, along with the fact that the couple were made homeless.

…Number 9 and Shadowplay’s statement called the movie “a faithful adaptation of the book that we optioned,” adding, “we undertook all necessary due diligence before acquiring the book.”

“The allegations made in The Observer relate to the book and are a matter for the author Raynor Winn,” added the statement. “We have passed any correspondence relating to the article to Raynor and her agent.”

The affair is an embarrassing and potentially problematic one for those involved in the movie, which opened in May and has so far taken more than $10M at the UK box office. The movie is yet to launch in key territories including Germany and France while a deal is reportedly still pending in the U.S.

[From Deadline]

So what do we think, folks? Aside from the certainty that the US distribution deal is now kaput? Many of you commented in our previous coverage that publishers don’t usually fact check (and I’d wager that those who do, are trying to pawn it off onto AI). Even if they typically don’t take this step, I think this case makes it clear that publishers should be fact checking material they intend to put their name on! But there’s a further wrinkle to this story that puzzles me: Sally Walker wrote the book using the pen name Raynor Winn. In order for Sally/Raynor to be paid by the publisher, wouldn’t there have been a paper trail, that at the very least raised questions? If she approached the publisher with, “I’m Sally Walker, but I’d like to use this other name,” I would expect that to peak the interest of someone in the legal department, no? Just for due diligence? And if Sally only used the name Raynor Winn with the publishers, did she rig up some Tom Ripley docs to create a bank account for the new identity?! It all just sounds so exhausting… maintaining the lies, creating new identities to evade debt collectors, and of course, that 630-mile walk.

Also, healthcare charity PSPA has now officially cut ties with the Winns. Given the discrepancy between Moth’s symptoms (and longevity) versus how the disease usually progresses, I wonder if the charity started having suspicions a while ago.

photos credit: user Theroadislong on Wikipedia, IMAGO/Dave Bedrosian/Avalon, Gillian Anderson via Instagram and Getty