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Carole Aubrée-Dumont's avatar

Hard agree. I'm particularly raging as a carer, dealing with a child's lifelong condition on an everyday basis, and how lifelong means lifelong, means every day, means relentless, means no healing in sight. Acknowledging this is part of the TRUE journey.

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Ali Millar's avatar

I thought of you when I saw the news. You write so elegantly but more importantly authentically. It’s such a kick in the teeth to people who don’t have healing in sight and can’t magic it up. I hope it changes what editors look for in a book and takes away the horrible expectation of a redemptive arc or a neatly tied up ending. We will see.

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Carole Aubrée-Dumont's avatar

Thank you Ali. That means so much.

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Ruth Allen, PhD (MNCPS Accred)'s avatar

Thank you for the nod in this Ali. Still raging this morning about what this expose has done, and will do.

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Ali Millar's avatar

You know I love your book, and fiercely love what nature can do, which is probably why I get so up in arms about it when it’s misused. I’m so worried about what it’ll do but keep hoping smart editors will now see the value in manuscripts that might otherwise have been turned down.

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Marielle Reuser's avatar

This is what I needed to overcome the icky feeling I got after reading the Observer article. Fuck the Nature Cure. Of course, spending time in nature offers both a powerful coping strategy and a grounding environment for self-discovery. However, pushing nature as a cure for terminal illness (potentially even imagined!) is cliché and harmful. I liked Polly Atkin's book 'Some of Us Just Fall' - disability is not something to be resolved.

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Ali Millar's avatar

Absolutely. Terminal illness is a serious thing and sure nature can help, but miracle cures shouldn’t be pushed. When I was unwell being in nature helped massively, but it wasn’t a substitute for therapy and everything medical, it was all part of the combination. And yes, you live with disability, in the same way you live with addiction, nature can be a way of managing things but cure is too far.

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Saved by Grace's avatar

If you haven't read One Woman Walks Europe by Ursula Martin, it's bloody brilliant! Warts and all, the pandemic, fear of attack by random men...it's about walking, but as far from The Salt Path as it's possible to get.

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Ali Millar's avatar

I’d love to read it, thank you for the recommendation. I walk a lot and lot Europe a lot.

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Katherine Kowalski's avatar

I'm hopeful that the next decade of memoir and true-life storytelling will see an end to the carefully curated fragility of Raynor Winn, Belle Gibson, and their ilk. I 'think' readers are wising up to false hope, and #BeKind culture needs to reason with itself so that a bit of healthy scepticism is seen as ok again, and not a moral outrage.

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Ali Millar's avatar

Absolutely. Healthy scepticism is a good thing, as is dismantling the ‘carefully curated fragility’ - I love this. I was talking to another writer today about the importance of including joy in memoir too, let’s write about ALL the stuff

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Margaret Bennett's avatar

Your points about writer as brand really struck a chord with me. I’m angry about it too. Angry that they lied and angry with the publishers for not checking and for developing the brand.

I don’t know a lot about the publishing world but trained as a journalist where fact checking should run through everything.

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Ali Millar's avatar

Having experienced both, it’s interested how in publishing the focus tends to be on defamation rather than anything else when it comes to legal reads. I love my publisher and know how stretched everyone is, but there’s obviously a loophole that needs to be explored here. So much of memoir goes on trust I guess, and a publisher wouldn’t even think to think this might be made up.

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Sarah Robertson's avatar

Such a powerful take. Thank you, Ali. As a reader (of all three books) I have a piece in draft, ready to publish tomorrow, and hope you won’t mind me quoting this piece. You make some really valid points I hadn’t considered!

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Ali Millar's avatar

Of course- quote away. Looking forward to reading your thoughts

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Jane Graham Maw's avatar

It’s not an ‘expose’ if it’s not true https://www.raynorwinn.co.uk/

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Ali Millar's avatar

I guess everything hinges on the if here

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