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

Very, very unpopular opinion but I have a right to express it here:

Moth partied it up during the late eighties and early nineties as a very good looking young blade and the mysterious neurological condition is called, "Overdoing it."

I'm with you imagine that time machine gets you back to the Salem who would be the hunted and who would be the hunters and what happened to innocent until proved guilty ?

I totally bought into her and her story. Her and Moth's story.

She was everywoman, he was everyman.

Two kind people, through no fault of their own lost their home and their livelihood. Why? Because they put money into a longstanding friend's business, and he conned them.

Just as they were reeling from losing their home, he was diagnosed with a terminal illness!

What could they do? They had nothing, so they walked.

And inspired people through their true story. Good things can happen to us after all. We can triumph through adversity. Illness and disease can be reduced.

And in the end she lied. She embezzled money. He doesn't have CBD. They ran away from their creditors. She's a fraud.

That's why the reaction.

Caned it so hard he ended up needing a cane.

Right I can totally buy that a couple, faced with an unexpected terminal diagnosis would go into shock and potentially misremember things that were said to them and misplace important letters from that time.

What I can’t buy is that exact same couple then write a book about what happened which is meant to be a factual account of the same incident which they can’t remember because of shock. And then go on to write other books and produce a film about these real life events that they can’t remember.

I also don’t think you can accidentally lose £64k in genuine accounting errors when you work for a local estate agent.

Maybe I’m the terrible person for not going along with it, but I think it’s bad for your soul to constantly tie yourself in knots to try and give everyone the benefit of the doubt.

This is a discussion forum and we are discussing someone who put her life out there and made a lot of money doing so. I don’t see anyone with pitchforks or trying to burn her house down

our people standards so low that someone not being a murderer and a rapist is what makes them a good person?

Yes, I would have also preferred the book if she’d just admitted to being completely appalling as a bookkeeper and with money in general and losing the house through their own terrible decisions. They could afford land in France but not legal advice?

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/jul/09/the-salt-path-author-defends-memoir-against-fabrication-allegations

We had doxing her children on thread 1 - admittedly taken down but done nevertheless.

Interesting point.
But she is possibly a criminal (thief.)

However, people read this book- 2M of them - believing all that was written.
You write a memoir based on your recollections but all the time you should be honest with the reader. It's a betrayal of trust with your reader.

People have a healthy cynicism of politicians and indeed expect them to lie.

We don't expect the same of an author who purports to write The Truth and also give a message of hope / triumph over adversity if it's all based on lies.

I guess if you don’t want people talking about your life, don’t write three books about it 😁 If it’s all bollocks we’re not talking about them though are we, we’re talking about the construct of them made up to sell stories.

What happened to the house lottery where buyers of the book were purportedly entered into a prize draw to win their house in Wales?

Did the draw not take place?

The biggest flaw in her statement from a journalist’s POV is that she offered to tell the truth to the Observer on condition that they didn’t publish it!

No self-respecting journalist would agree to that.

Her rebuttal has been picked up on several news sites, Telegraph is pretty savage, leading with the ‘I regret making mistakes’ angle…

Reading the drs' letters it seems they don't know what he has and the CBD/CBS diagnosis is there because they don't know what else to call it.

He clearly is unwell - read his symptoms- but they dismiss Parkinson's and other similar illnesses.

My interpretation of the letters is they don't know what he has, but give it a possible name as nothing else fits.

Agreed. She seems remarkably badly advised.

I don’t disagree that some went a bit far

im also a little uncomfortable with discussion on his health. He is clearly unwell but the timing and type of diagnosis doesn’t support what she wrote.

and she is an unrepentant thief and I have little pity for that

Apparently she refunded them their money.

She claims they were given a refund.

My view is that she's dug a hole and any good journalist will be all over this like a rash and leave no stone unturned.

Uricon2 · Today 20:29

** what possible impact is some of us sharing our views on MN going to have on the probably multimillionaire Winn whatever? We are not their problem. The media in all its forms are their problem now, not a few threads here.
The nonsensical #bekind rubbish that pollutes any attempt at rational thought seems to never go away.

This! So bored of the virtue signalling.

Or maybe she’s like Prince Harry and thinks she knows better than they do?

I can't believe that I didn't realise this previously but prior or current drug abuse can cause all of the symptoms and more, those symptoms would be "reversed" partially or entirely by stopping use (as in no money to buy drugs / on a long distance walk supervised by ones wife). And often times, how does a doctor establish whether something is drug induced - they ask you if you take / have ever taken drugs.Of course everyone answers that question very honestly.

She is not a murderer or a rapist.

No but that doesn’t mean stealing from your employer is an acceptable thing to do.

Could be more trouble at t'mill - I have my suspicions !

Even as I write this, I’ve been tipped off that a major scandal might blow over another “nature-adjacent” memoir by a woman author. Meanwhile, just look at the private online debates that happen whenever a celebrity memoir emerges that doesn’t mention a cocaine habit or inconvenient love affairs. We writers are jealous souls by nature, fiercely resenting number-one sales spots taken by memoirists whose lives have taken an unexpectedly gripping turn (or who are protected from consequences by an army of lawyers and publicists).

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-salt-path-raynor-winn-scandal-b2784866.html

The Telegraph tonight.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/09/penguin-defends-publishing-the-salt-path-embezzlement-row/