The Salt Path | Mumsnet

Sadcafe · 2025-05-17T11:20:37+00:00

Anyone read it and is it a good read

Original poster

Sadcafe · 13/07/2025 19:47

Well I never did buy it , with everything that has come to light recently, I’m glad I didn’t

OP posts:

GoldenSpraint · 13/07/2025 10:43

https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/moth-told-me-he-was-dying-when-a-doctor-had-said-his-brain-scan-was-normal

And now the man they were renting from has said Moth told him he had been given a couple of months to live!

What a lot of lies this couple have told!

Digitalhen · 13/07/2025 10:37

Daysofcake · 26/05/2025 17:40

^^This - I started reading it after a friend gave it to me, saying she had found it incredibly sad and moving. They started to really annoy me, though — the beginning didn’t quite ring true. DP is a lawyer and said the legal situation (with the judge not accepting the evidence in time), would be very unlikely to have happened in the way she presents it. I couldn’t find any real life evidence of the case, either, which would normally be around in the public domain, so I concluded that her name must be a pseudonym, because there’s no trace of her unless connected to the book publication. (Try it — it’s impossible to find out any corroborating evidence about them in real life beyond the book publicity!)

The whole time in the book they seemed to regard themselves as a special case who should be allowed to do things like nick stuff, trespass, wild camp etc. just because they were middle class people in a tight spot! I had to abandon it 2/3 of the way through!

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Very perceptive considering the last week’s worth of news re: this couple and their ‘story’ 🙌

GlomOfNit · 07/07/2025 00:07

Daysofcake · 26/05/2025 17:40

^^This - I started reading it after a friend gave it to me, saying she had found it incredibly sad and moving. They started to really annoy me, though — the beginning didn’t quite ring true. DP is a lawyer and said the legal situation (with the judge not accepting the evidence in time), would be very unlikely to have happened in the way she presents it. I couldn’t find any real life evidence of the case, either, which would normally be around in the public domain, so I concluded that her name must be a pseudonym, because there’s no trace of her unless connected to the book publication. (Try it — it’s impossible to find out any corroborating evidence about them in real life beyond the book publicity!)

The whole time in the book they seemed to regard themselves as a special case who should be allowed to do things like nick stuff, trespass, wild camp etc. just because they were middle class people in a tight spot! I had to abandon it 2/3 of the way through!

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This is so prescient! And that it rang so untrue for you that you tried to look them up for corroboration and ... couldn't find any mention of them aside from book publicity.

jjeoreo · 06/07/2025 22:12

SirChenjins · 21/05/2025 18:32

I gave up a few chapters in. The couple were ridiculous and quite frankly, deserved everything they got through their sheer stupidity - to the extent I started to doubt it was a true story.

This comment has aged very well! Kudos to you!

TheHillsIsLonely · 06/07/2025 16:12

Thread in AIBU:
To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Zov · 06/07/2025 13:48

Oh dear. #awkward

HardbackPaperback · 06/07/2025 13:47

minnienono · 06/07/2025 13:29

And crucially changed her name - no due diligence seems to have been done

No ‘due diligence’ is done by publishers on memoirs. Their legal team will only have been concerned with whether a potential case for defamation could be brought against them. The investigative journalist who researched the Observer article had to provide facts because she needed to prove a serious allegation of theft against Sally Walker, but no publisher is going to have asked to see copies of Tim Walker’s medical records, for instance, or court transcripts. Their defence would probably be that the main concern of the book was the actual walk, and that this had actually happened.

There have of course been famous examples of previous ‘fake memoirs’, where publishers have offered refunds to customers who could prove they bought the book before the revelations, and hence under false pretences. It may mean that future memoirs will be fact-checked where possible, or with the legal rider that this book is ‘substantially based on real events’ or such.

DoorOpening · 06/07/2025 13:40

I haven’t read it or seen it, but it’s interesting how many of you picked up on the lack of credibility!

MarvellousMonsters · 06/07/2025 13:37

This hasn’t aged well….

minnienono · 06/07/2025 13:29

And crucially changed her name - no due diligence seems to have been done

TooExtraImmatureCheddar · 06/07/2025 13:28

Wow. I do wonder why none of this has come out before - the film producers are going to look very silly.

YellowGrey · 06/07/2025 10:59

This is shocking!

GoldenSpraint · 06/07/2025 10:57

Seems she embezzled her employer, and that's what escalated to them losing the house. No wonder lots of it didn't ring true.

observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit

proximalhumerous · 04/06/2025 15:27

5foot5 · 04/06/2025 09:51

I guess they must have edited out a lot of the packing up and setting off for another day's walking in the final cut then.

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Good to know they took my comments on board!

5foot5 · 04/06/2025 09:51

proximalhumerous · 04/06/2025 03:26

It was a special "work in progress" screening at a hotel in Mayfair.

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I guess they must have edited out a lot of the packing up and setting off for another day's walking in the final cut then.

proximalhumerous · 04/06/2025 03:26

5foot5 · 03/06/2025 23:54

That's quite an achievement since it wasn't released in cinemas until 30th May this year, i.e 3 days ago. Ten days after your post!

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It was a special "work in progress" screening at a hotel in Mayfair.

Daysofcake · 04/06/2025 00:00

5foot5 · 03/06/2025 23:54

That's quite an achievement since it wasn't released in cinemas until 30th May this year, i.e 3 days ago. Ten days after your post!

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AFAIK there were some preview screenings last year - there was one that Gillian Anderson gave a talk at I think

5foot5 · 03/06/2025 23:54

proximalhumerous · 20/05/2025 22:09

I saw the film last year and got a bit bored with watching them pack up and set off for a day's walking 75 times. The two main actors were good though.

Edited

That's quite an achievement since it wasn't released in cinemas until 30th May this year, i.e 3 days ago. Ten days after your post!

JumpingDizzy · 28/05/2025 11:46

I saw her interview on the one show. She seems pretty keen to make people aware of the plight of homeless people?

I enjoyed the book. Dh has just reread it and I'm going to before seeing the film.

We love long distance walking but stay indoors. We've done some camping and walking. I admire those who carry everything. We carry all our clothes etc.

I'd probably have gone to see the film Friday but we're already out. I'm working all weekend. Maybe next week?

SmallSoupcon · 28/05/2025 11:33

C8H10N4O2 · 27/05/2025 10:38

I enjoyed the audiobook as well and I liked the fact that it wasn’t fluffed up to make the writer into a more sympathetic character.

I’m interested that the audiobook seems to be more popular than the written book as I’ve seen exactly this divide in other discussions on this book. Possibly Winn comes across as a more recognisable person when narrating than in writing.

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I found her monotone delivery more difficult than the writing!

Dearover · 27/05/2025 21:36

They got on my wick, but I read it as I'm Cornish and got a different perspective on places I know well.

She's now making cider near Lostwithiel

senua · 27/05/2025 21:31

GardenGaff · 27/05/2025 20:51

This.

It’s a work of fiction, every single chapter to be taken with a huge pinch of salt!

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I see what you did there!

hattie43 · 27/05/2025 21:21

I have to say I found the book rather dull .

Aworldofmyown · 27/05/2025 20:55

I enjoyed it. However I found their inability to be adults annoying.