Thread 4: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

Second article in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

Third article in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

Thread One ^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?^

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

Thread 3 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5369425-thread-3-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

Ultimately there will be people who love her and will accept anything she says. Her statement raises more questions than it answers and anyone who reads that as a satisfactory rebuttal are either gullible or naive

we all love a Walter Mitty character though and that’s how she is coming across - I think if she rides this through she will still have enough fans to continue her career at a lower level and if she writes her mea culpa there are enough fans to be assuaged by that. I do think she needs to start being honest though - she claims the walk changed her as a person so she can claim horror and shame at her previous criminality

That's how it reads to me.

And if the Observer had deliberately, knowingly printed lies about you then surely you'd be suing them and putting out a statement to say so.

People fall for scams all the time. I think people want to believe people are truthful and good of heart so they ignore alarm bells (like this ridiculous loan to pay back a failed investment bullshit) and unfortunately it backfires on them.

I generally believe people are truthful and good of heart but having been burned in various ways over the years, you have to learn to have good boundaries and not over invest in other people until you are as confident as you can be that they are legit.

The article linked by @caramac04 adds nothing and is itself inaccurate, describing the walk as having taken place in the “south of England”. Little meander in Bournemouth, anyone?

Sorry I only just saw this this morning and didn’t realise it was out sooner.

She says she remortgaged her house. So she borrowed against the house, not took out the entire mortgage! Do read what you're commenting on before you comment and make wild assumptions.

You can remortgage for small sums. I added £15k to mine once.

Still catching up with the thread, so apols if this has been covered:

Does she explain anywhere why/when he left his job as Head Gardener?

I wonder where they are now.

If they left the cider farm months ago, I'm surprised she hasn't mentioned anywhere about some wonderful, amazing new opportunity.

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/film/2025/07/the-salt-path-was-always-suspicious

This just recounts the situation, but describes TSP as ‘Scientology for the middle classes’, as the kind of homespun salvation parable thst fills a faith-shaped hole in people’s lives that is no longer filled by the C of E.

It also compares it to the bestselling fiction debut The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (which I haven’t read because it sounds godawful) which also describes a journey on foot of hundreds of miles in the hope of staving off a death. Also to Paulo Coelho and L Ron Hubbard.

Why should she? As she says in her statement she was writing a snapshot in time not an autobiography.

Just catching up with the thread. Need to take dog out first.
Yes her statement doesn’t make sense in that some of their supposed actions/decisions sound very odd and hardly likely.

I wonder where they are now, if they have left the farm ? I can't imagine still in the same locality because, after all the publicity someone would have said, I think .

Looking forward to the next Observer piece. Apparently there's more to come ? ..

Sally's narrative is all about saving or rescuing things .. seems like they only bought the French bramble patch to save it from developers .. I wonder what was so special about it ?

I think her statement is ill advised. It doesn't answer the key points made by the Observer. Plus describing stealing from your employer as "a mistake" is ridiculous.

"To be guided on the truth" sounds so manipulative, it's really not a nice phrase.

Gigspanner believe it shows she’s been grossly misjudged & expect most others will in time. Will the Observer follow up on Sunday?

Can someone with more familiarity with UK law suggest why, as RW says in her rebuttal, they didn’t declare bankruptcy at the time of losing their house?

She flags it as a sign of their integrity, that they chose not to, and instead of having their debts wiped, chose instead to make ‘minimal repayments’ to their creditors.

She also says they’ve repaid everything owed since, starting with the advance for TSP, and that if the Observer had run a credit check on them, they would see they have no debts…

Indeed. I'm no lawyer but common sense would suggest at the very least, when The Observer declined to accept their terms of non-disclosure of "the truth", they should have offered some form of believable defense to be included with the article to counter the claims. Instead they said "this is highly misleading." I'd be seeking new legal advisors by now, esp after the statement yesterday which only digs a deeper hole.

Does it ‘dig a deeper hole’ or will most now assume they are ‘tall poppies’ & essentially good egg victims of a witch hunt?

I think she's banking on people accepting whatever she says and not looking into it too closely.

Like Gigspanner and the people commenting on their supportive post.

Just saying, look I've been forced to share medical letters, will satisfy many people. They won't look further into why his illness (potentially a mild form of CBS, not confirmed terminal CBD) was diagnosed two years after the walk she's written about (2015 against 2013).

A lot of people would not only need this explaining to them, but would have to have someone go point by point with them through the book before they'd begin to accept something was amiss.

And even then a lot would still want to believe. It really is like a religion!

I’m happy the garage owner is getting his money

I wonder if there will be more people coming out if the woodwork now claiming unpaid debts - there’s room for a few scammers in there

I wonder if the campsite owners ere reimbursed!!

My guess would be that it’s because she was just about to be questioned about fraud…

I feel the Observer have a duty of care towards Ros Hemmings. I don't know if they will follow up but if they don't it would be pretty poor of them.

Ros has put her head above the parapet and Sally Walker has as good as said Martin Hemmings was a bit shady and that he wanted the settlement as much as she did.

Because if he had a job, they would have had an income coming in.

Also, they seem to be very good at doing flits - from Staffordshire, to Wales, to Cornwall...

Where would be next. Needs to be somewhere a long way from Cornwall, off the beaten path. East Anglia? Scotland?

My money is on scotland, to get away from the nasty, hounding English tabloid culture....

I was thinking this - it's like a cult, or a religion. Some people have bought into her narrative so deeply that they can't/don't want to disbelieve it. And they're probably impressed by all her waffle and medical letters.

Poor suckers.