Thread 2. To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[AWanderingFool]

Thread Two for The Salt Path and Raynor Winn/Sally Walker/Sally Winn discussions.

Thread One is here: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Beautifully put in the i paper:

But what Winn is alleged to have done here is far worse. Frey’s book was merely evidence of a typically tiresome American bro flexing his survivalist muscles; no harm done, ultimately. But The Salt Path milked its redemptive arc, and gave hope to all sorts of people, particularly fellow sufferers of Moth’s illness.
This is not, as has since been confirmed by neurologists, the kind of disease whose symptoms can be lessened simply by purchasing a pair of sturdy walking boots from Millets.

The doubts over whether they walked has reminded me of a book I read recently about the author doing a long distance hike in my local area. I was really enjoying the book, until they got to a village and wrote about the history of someone there. A 5 second Google told me that this person actually lived in a different village with the same name in another county. Which then made me wonder if this author had actually done this walk.

I've been enjoying reading a lot of books about long distance hikes and pilgrimages and I'm now going to be pretty sceptical as to whether these authors have actually done them.

These are flawed people. But… throwing stones and all that…

Tim and Sally Walker aren't just flawed humans, though, they're criminals who've left devestation behind them.

I've not read the book or watched the film but the comments on here are intriguing.
Searching for Raynor Winn Just Giving shows that they have raised a good amount of money for The PSP Association which supports people with CBD plus other linked neurological conditions.
These diagnoses are horrible, with no cure.
If we all donated a couple of pound to the charity something good would come out of this , without benefiting anyone other than people with these conditions.
Here's the link if you want to donate.
https://www.pspassociation.org.uk/fundraising/donate/

Bearing this in mind surely her forthcoming novel memoir book won't now be published. How could they publicise it and who would want to read It knowing that it's probably built on untruths.

Ángela Harding has just put up an Instagram story.

When they did this, in 2013, UC and PIP hadn’t been rolled out yet, it was the older system. And a pp has pointed out that for all of that you need a local address. I think this was a tax credit of some sort, and TC were assigned based on annual income, not weekly income, and reassessed annually.

These are flawed people. But… throwing stones and all that…

They're thieves. It's fine to judge thieves.

He has called his aunt and uncle pathological liars. That goes way beyond "We are very disturbed by these allegations."

Nicely subtle!

ESA and DLA could still have used the diagnosis

Yes I thought so. And yes also a lovely story in its own right that made me smile

Also tax credits had extra elements for disability as well

That’s what flawed humans do. All of us to some extent, some more than others. I hope they now realise the game is up and make amends.

It's very bizarre how people are minimising theft on a grand scale (£64,000!!!) and lying about a serious neurological condition and how they "reversed it"

These aren't people who just dodged a couple of bus fares.

There will be a lot more truths to come out. "Real" she was not.

And that is what people are upset about.

The Guardian at last bringing up the rear!

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/07/author-of-bestselling-memoir-the-salt-path-accused-of-lying-and-stealing-observer-investigation-raynor-winn

After all that they are still estimated to have made around £million from the books & subsequent film.

And they say that crime doesn't pay.

One essential is sunscreen. You don't walk without it. Toast is on my wishlist when I win the lottery.

I can’t see anything?

Neither existed at the time. PIP / DLA are based on impacts not diagnoses - I can tell you for a fact that someone who can walk the coastal path isn't getting DLA (or PIP these days). And it seems his diagnosis - if it even existed - was "possibly" because nobody could be sure.

How much does Tim Walker need PIP, DLA, ESA or whatever?

This is from Sally Walker's Insta and shows Tim last December.

I wondered about the student loan too - would that be paid to someone with a degenerative terminal illness? Wonder he’s paid it back yet?

So she's deleted anything to do with the Salt Path books she illustrated, then she posts this in her stories:

Or it could simply be a very accurate statement. To be honest, when I read that my impression was that the subtext was "You have no idea what else they have done... yet". A pathological liar to me is a bit more than lying about theft / the loss of your house and nicking a few bars of fudge. I would assume that someone well-educated as the nephew and wide appear to be would know that. Whilst not condoning it, I can understand why one might lie about the theft / reason for the house loss - people make mistakes, even bad ones, and I believe that they can change. But this pair appeat to not actually know what the truth is - there is almost nothing that isn't questionable about their story, and the nephew seems to allude to it being far far worse than we know.