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

[DisappointedReader]

The real Salt Path: how the couple behind a bestseller le...

I read Raynor Winn's book The Salt Path and her other two books. I was looking forward to seeing the film at some point and to reading her next book. I felt sorry to read about the challenges the couple had faced, especially with regard to losing their family home and with Moth's health. Now, having read the article in today's Observer, I feel a bit stunned and am not sure what to think.

He’s not an investigative journalist though. It takes months of painstaking research to find out the facts - and no one had any idea of the extent of the deception until the Observer broke the story.
The story has been accepted as genuine for over a decade.
How was an actor supposed to verify the facts? That’s not even their job.

I have to say that Observer article was extremely well written and they must have spend a lot of time investigating it to have got all of that detail. There is another fantastic Welsh journalist who would love to get his teeth into this and he will dig a lot deeper into their past. I emailed him an hour ago so I'll see what he says.

I’ve not read the book or even heard of it to be fair. But anyone who lies about “curing” themselves is the lowest of the low. It creates a false narrative. As someone with a long term health condition I get so upset when people suggest if I pushed myself to the extreme I’d find some magical cure like others have.

Agreed! It’s not up to actors to do their due diligence.

I've never read the book. When someone described it to me and sang its praises I thought what an insane thing to do. I'm glad I was right to be dubious.

On the subject of Tim's name though. I used to know someone who people called Mothy whose name was actually Timothy. Timothy it makes sense.

ETA: I haven't read the whole thread but I did read the article posted.

I have the book but I’ve never read it. I was given it by a friend who adored it, as did several others. I always felt a bit skeptical about the story. Especially about the diagnosis. But thought maybe I was just being cynical. Now I feel vindicated. I really hope they are properly and publicly exposed.

I suspended my curiosity about the house loss when I read the book, and kind of accepted the fact that neurological illnesses are unpredictable (look at Stephen Hawking), and just enjoyed the writing. However, a friend gave me Landlines, and I went off the pair of them after reading of their disregard for local people (wild camping with gastroenteritis? Nice) and it felt formulaic and sketchy.

So I'm disappointed by the article and feel sorry they duped a number of respected artists into working with them (well, her). And owe people money STILL. And angry that 'homeless' means 'apart from our French property'.

No more so than everyone else. They're actors, they were offered roles in a script someone else wrote, I expect they did a good job (I love them both but wasn't interested in the film). No reason for them to feel bad about themselves.

I have to say I did always question the business deal and the illness and indeed the whole wild camping thing , but still enjoyed the book and film .I’m shocked at the scale of the deceit though. I suppose having enough income will prevent them stealing someone one else’s money .

This is fascinating. I’d love to understand how you can come up with such a niche grift that draws so much attention to you as a person and never worry about being found out. If they didn’t even walk the path on top of lying about their circumstances and the husband’s health it’s almost performance art in itself 😁

You’d think with all the money it costs to get books published and films made that the lawyers would do some kind of fact check. I look forward to the 6 part Netflix documentary.

Penguin won't mind, they will probably put out a statement saying it wasn't verified but published on editorial merit or something and their sales will go up because there will be a lot more people wanting to read the book now .

( Same sort of thing aswhen Elena Ferrante was outed as a journalist writing fiction rather than someone growing up in a poor district)

I have a friend who is a brilliant nature writer. But she hasn't been able to get anything published for a while, as publishers are increasingly asking her to add some ' trauma' to her books, like an unhappy childhood. She doesn't want to do that. So she has no USP in a world where everyone is a victim.

I thought the book was dull as fuck and wondered how it got published. I hope there’s a full police investigation into them now.

His name being Ray and hers being Raynor seemed improbable. It wasn't so much the eco stuff, that seemed believable. Searching for them just made me think they'd changed their names for writing reasons. It's not uncommon.

It didn't cross my mind that it was because she was a criminal.

No Penguin won't mind.

What is disgusting though is in the highly competitive world of publishing, its highly likely this would not have been published had it been submitted as fiction.

I think Sally knew that (hence why she set up her own press - im assuming she must have spent decades trying and failing to get published as a novelist, tried to selfpublish and then as a last resort decided to pose as a memoirist)

Agreed! I am almost in awe of the sheer brass balls of people to come up with these completely public scams/lies and appear to have no fear that someone who knows them will say “hang on a minute!”

Not sure what to believe … saw the film and thought it was rather good.

I liked the aspects of The Salt Path that described the places they visited, but agree with others that they did not come across as likeable and I always thought the way they lost the house and Moth’s illness didn’t ring true. I have read the two sequels but didn’t like them so much and Moth’s illness was even less likely in those due to time passing.

She’s got another book due out later this year - wonder what will happen with that now?

WOW! I haven’t read it thankfully but never will now.

I was given the book by a friend who extolled it to the skies. I found it hard going and the loss of the house totally glossed over. The PP mentioned the claim that they at the last minute found mitigating evidence but the judge would not let them present it. That never rang true for me as they were acting as litigants in person and there is more leeway given anyway for LIPs as they don't know what they are doing usually. Plus for something as serious as losing a house? That really stood out for me.

I did see the film and quite enjoyed it, but again felt frustrated by alot of it and their repeatedly stupid decisions. Camping on a beach (tides anyone?) etc.

It never convinced me tbh. As one of the consultants in the article says 'It did not pass the sniff test'.

In one of the clips shown in The Observer Jason Isaacs is on the One Show with Sally Walker and says that she can't say her and Tim were conned by an old friend but that he can because that's what happened.

He's no need to feel bad for being duped, but he advocated for them publicly so he's bound to feel a bit more emotion about it than random people like us.

Wow just Wow !

This is so weird as I haven’t read the book or seen the film but I saw them on the one show talking about it and something about their story just did not ring true to me. I thought you can’t just get better from that condition by walking and living in a tent!
Knew it!

I liked the book but mainly for description of the coast path features/places as I had walked SWCP previously.

It took me a while but I have worked out that Moth was derived from TiMOTHy, makes me now wonder whether Winn a wishful thinking on win??

Never really delved into the financial back story and initially thought maybe there was a grain of truth in "improvement" of a neurological condition through sheer perseverance (along the lines of intensive physio) but that improvement wouldn't have lasted through the other two books. i have a close family member with a similar condition and not only there is no treatment but there is no hope of improvement. I thought that the miraculous improvement was too far fetched and feel conned to even believe it initially.

I found the other two books repetitive and annoying, I wouldn't be surprised if they were not chronological, or not describing walks after the SWCP but done at some other times. And it wasn't obvious from the first book that they were seasoned walkers.

Didn't like the film at all, it felt like the scenes were just bolted together with not much continuity and views of birds and sky in-between and they didn't even get to the end. Plus the "amazing" improvement from the book got just the comment "I feel better" in the film rather than any actual medical proof which suggests that perhaps it wasn't true after all.

Read somewhere that their latest walk is Thames path which could well be what the next book might be about assuming it doesn't get cancelled now.

I had gained some hope after reading the book. My husband and I genuinely lost our family home due to a con by a so called friend. I read the book with gusto and felt there may be a light at the end of the tunnel for us as the Walkers had successfully overcome their struggle. It did seem strange however seeing them on Rick Stein some years ago pressing apples in Cornwall. My husband never thought it was true and always maintained this when I was saying they had 'done well." Clearly Sally was the instigator of deception and Tim went along with it, but together they have deceived so many people and my thoughts are with the Hemmings family. So many people have been duped by this couple. I hope they meet karma.