Taken With A Pinch Of Salt

I read this during lockdown, two years after it first came out. I gave it a 3* review, and dithered about making it 4*. I admired their resilience and commitment to their marriage - and having toured France ourselves with a tiny tent, minimal luggage and a tight budget, I recognised that such ventures can be very stressful.

But last month's article in the Observer, by Chloe Hadjimatheou left a really sour taste in my mouth.

What was claimed to be a 'true story' in fact is full of not just inaccuracies, but many actual falsehoods. 

When I read the book, some parts didn't feel quite right, and in my review I said as much  "It doesn't do to be too forensic as you read it. I think there are parts where things may have been slightly adjusted to fit the narrative. I mean, surely, a woman of her age, packing for a long journey by the sea in summer, would remember a hat and some sanpro? And their diet, if it was exactly as described, seems extremely bizarre and unhealthy. Dates are very vague - and there is a hiatus in their walk, when someone offers accommodation so they can be inside 'over the winter'. Nine months disappear into one chapter. "
But I tried not too be too judgmental, so didn't put in my review that I felt that stealing food from the village shop is always wrong: I gave her the benefit of the doubt, their finances were tight, she was worried that her sick husband was weak from lack of food etc. But now I learn that they own a plot of land in France, and that there are serious doubts about his diagnosis of a terminal illness.
Winn was very critical of other people, who apparently dismissed the pair as "tramps, down and outs, or addicts". There are numerous episodes where they are treated badly at campsites and little shops. Since Chloe's article, a number of Cornish people have come forward and spoken of their distress at recognising their shops and sites described in the book - with totally false reports of what happened. Some are local traders who lost business because of the way they have been very inaccurately portrayed in the book.

Somebody at Penguin didn't do their necessary checking up before publishing this "true" story, did they? They might have discovered inter3sting facts -That the bailiffs claimed their house because they had embezzled money from their employees. That nine months condensed into one short chapter misses out the things that they did in the community which sheltered them, and the debts they left unpaid. That the medical details in the book do not follow the same timeline as those Winn has given elsewhere. 

It is all really sickening. I wonder how Gillian Anderson feels now, having played the lead character in the film? 
I recognised that directors claim "dramatic licence" when they alter the details of a story for the film - to make it easier to follow etc. But it seems to be the case that a high percentage of the original book was based on economies with the truth - and yet it claims to be a true story.
"What would happen to us, if we suddenly became homeless and without any income?" I said to Bob - and he said that our friends would rally round and help. [As they did for us in 1985] "Well where were her friends?" I responded. And I found myself wondering if the fact that Raynor claimed that nobody seemed to be friendly towards to them was because she herself wasn't a particularly friendly character. Maybe she did not have any friends to support her.

As Mark Twain said "A lie can get half way round the world while truth is getting its boots on"

Some people are angry, others feel cheated by all this. I just feel sad