The Salt Path (The Film)

I read the book and thought they were horrible and stupid people.
If I remember correctly they lost their home partly due to not reading paperwork correctly and then set off without even basic medical supplies.
They then stole from small businesses and seemed to delight in sneaking into campsites to use the facilities. And then they fell out with a friend who had offered them accommodation in return for some manual work.

foxie48

Well, Lathyrus I think you need to ask those who have defended her stealing to explain their justification, as for me (and tbh most of the other posters that enjoyed her book) I have just accepted that the stealing of the chocolate bar and sleeping in a campsite field without paying is a small part of the story that she has chosen to tell.

Well that’s a defence.

It was ok because it was only a small part of her story.

It was also part of the campsite owners story and the shopkeepers story and may not have been a small thing fir them.

That’s what I mean. Focused on herself .

foxie48 Fri 06-Jun-25 18:43:18
Of course stealing is wrong, she could have left those bits out, but she didn't,

foxie48 Sat 07-Jun-25 09:06:44
Lathrus absolutely nowhere have I said it's ok to steal and I don't think anyone else has either.

Stealing is obviously wrong.

Having compassion for people who, under duress, once or twice in a lifetime take small things because they are desperate/unwell/bereft/etc isn't wrong.

They used to transport hungry children who stole bread.

I'm going to be honest here. Through no fault of his own my husband was made homeless when he was a teenager. He slept in the floor in other people's sheds and barns (without permission) and, on occasion, when he was hungry, he stole food.

He literally pulled himself from the gutter, got a job and by the time he was 20 had started contributing to society. Has he ever paid back the people he took things from? No, but he has paid his way, paid tax, he volunteers for two charities (including Shelter and our local homelessness charity). He is the most honest, kind, decent, honourable person I have ever met.

People in extreme situations don't always act rationally or do the right thing but it doesn't make them bad people.

Being unable to see shades of grey or an absence of compassion because, 'I've been in a tight spot and didn't do it' aren't virtues.

My shades of grey encompass compassion for those who have their livelihoods stolen from them and the effect that it has on them. It’s easy for those who steal to just brush that off.

That is the essence of stealing from others. They and their lives are insignificant compared with meeting your own wants.

Actually I think it is a virtue to consider myself and my wants of no more more importance than anyone else and to hold back from doing harm.

I don’t think it’s a virtue to sneer at somebody who has faced some of life’s most difficult challenges and held fast to what they believe to be right.

You might even sway that lacks compassion.

As I said previously, I think this was all very well-planned.

Not something done on the spur of the moment but planned with a book and publicity in mind.

We're going to have to agree to disagree Lathyrus3

No sneering intended.

I tend to agree with Lathyrus
If everyone stole what they wanted or thought they needed from small businesses, there would be no small businesses surviving.

Packing fleeces? Well done. There are many other casual jobs too.

Ah , the warm glow that comes from knowing oneself to be a truly caring and compassionate person.

And the even warmer glow that comes from knowing that all the costs will be borne by somebody else 😬

Is there just a whiff of sanctimony in some of th? comments on this thread?

I don’t think so.

Just a lack of caring for the people who are actually suffering.

Those who advocate compassion for taking from small businesses can do so freely because it is free for them. It costs them nothing.

Obviously those who have taken the service or goods have a gain not a loss, they ensure their needs are met.

And yet the people who are really suffering the loss are invisible to them. When posters here call for others to show compassion, they are really saying that it is for small business owners to people to do that, not me or themselves.

Compassion isn’t a feeling, as in I feel so sorry for them. It’s an act that is carried out.

Marmin

Is there just a whiff of sanctimony in some of th? comments on this thread?

Not stealing and thinking it's wrong is not sanctimonious.

A street urchin with nothing and no education? Perhaps.

Two well-educated people who lost their home and livelihood through her over-confidence in her own abilities? No. She could have got a job.
Early on in their journey, Raynor dropped some of the few coins they had left outside a shop. She was on the ground trying to get them out of a drain when a woman with a dog started “poking me with her foot, saying: ‘Get up, you drunken tramp, we don’t want people like you here.’ I was thinking: Who’s she talking to? Then I realised she was talking to me

But she was being somewhat economical with the truth.

They had some money and they had tax credits they could ave drawn. But that wouldn't have made a story.

Oh I see, it’s me that’s being sanctimonious. I thought Marmin meant those posters who were basking in their warm feelings of compassion whilst requiring others to carry the cost of the act 😬

I wonder how many people have read the book and then did the same walk under the impression it is fine to sponge off others as they go.

Having read some negative reviews of the film I went this evening with fairly low expectations, however, I was very pleasantly surprised. It's a lovely film. Good acting, glorious photography, stayed fairly well to the book but not slavishly and the best part of two hours went by pretty quickly. The film IMO is an easier watch than the book is to read iyswim but I enjoyed both. For the poster who didn't like RW's accent in the film, I thought it was a pretty good attempt at a Midlands accent but I'm not from Melton Mowbray! Anyway, anyone who enjoyed the book should find something to like about the film, I think. Anyone who hasn't read the book but loves British Coastal scenery won't be disappointed and anyone who needs a thrill a minute to keep them awake, will absolutely hate it!

I might have to go now, just to check out her accent and to see if DGD and I are in any shots 😁

I hope you enjoy it Allira I went with three friends and we all did but I think we have similar tastes. I know the early sections of the Salt Path fairly well so I was a bit surprised to see, what I think was East Head popping up early on. It's a lovely part of the world but definitely not on the Salt Path!

I can’t make out the authors accent at all but I’m sure that Gillian Anderson does it very well. I just don’t like it very much. And I’m saying that as someone from Birmingham who loves a Brummie accent. I will see the film eventually. I enjoyed the book but not to the extent that I want a brilliant adaptation of it. I won’t be bitterly disappointed as I was with Captain Corellis Mandolin.

foxie48

I hope you enjoy it Allira I went with three friends and we all did but I think we have similar tastes. I know the early sections of the Salt Path fairly well so I was a bit surprised to see, what I think was East Head popping up early on. It's a lovely part of the world but definitely not on the Salt Path!

Neither is our town!

A friend asked me to go with her this week so off we went.

I found it rather dull, as did my friend but we have both read the book. The cinema was nearly empty.

My goodness I have just read the article in todays Observer (6/7).

Everything about them is a lie - apart I assume them actually walking the SWW!

Liars, embezzlers, false friends. It is all there for us to read.

I read and enjoyed The Salt Path - largely because I am Cornish, I have been entirely fooled.

observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit
Shocked but not surprised.

I am a bit surprised tbh.

I sort of could accept that they were petty thieves etc, because of the apparent trauma they had been through, (although I didn’t like it) but I never expected such dreadful deceit.

Their behaviour has been outrageous.

observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

Another Observer article.