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

1000 replies

DisappointedReader · 09/07/2025 20:23

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

OP posts:
Thread gallery
49
Aspanielstolemysanity · 10/07/2025 15:49

ShedSister · 10/07/2025 15:41

Here's an interview with Sally Raworth from Waterstones, 54 minutes in Moth gets dragged in and is asked about Raynor's writing ability.
He is arguably a better speaker than his wife.
Joint Collab?

I am far less articulate when speaking than when writing. My daughter is the reverse (she's dyslexic). I think this is such a stupid thing to start imagining.
There's enough actual holes in the story without making up new ones

ThatFluentHedgehog · 10/07/2025 15:51

Fandango52 · 10/07/2025 13:57

He definitely has appeared in at least one - e.g. this one: www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/30/gillian-anderson-jason-isaacs-the-salt-path-raynor-winn

There's another that a PP shared on Thread 3, where the interview was with SW but the reporter really wanted to speak to TW and at the end she guesses he's in the background and asks him to come on camera, the couple have no choice but to oblige. They look pretty conspiratorial and in cahoots sat next to each other at home.

Redheadedstepchild · 10/07/2025 15:55

I think the, "Moth wrote it" thing started because we were trying to work out whether he was an active player in the scam or just dragged along by Sally.

(Strangely, I find it easier to refer to him as Moth than I can refer to her as Raynor.)

I don't think he wrote it, per se, but he was obviously her first proof reader, as it were and I think he's just as dodgy as she is.

EternalLodga · 10/07/2025 15:56

Aspanielstolemysanity · 10/07/2025 15:49

I am far less articulate when speaking than when writing. My daughter is the reverse (she's dyslexic). I think this is such a stupid thing to start imagining.
There's enough actual holes in the story without making up new ones

On the last page you called the theory "ridiculous", and you've now added "stupid".

Could you check your tone please?

We're on Thread 4 of a topic entirely dedicated to picking through this story and offering up ideas. If you dont like a theory you can just not engage with it, or offer your counterarguments without denigrating somebody else's position.

Thank you.

AnAlpacaForChristmasPleaseSanta · 10/07/2025 16:02

Aspanielstolemysanity · 10/07/2025 15:25

I think the whole "moth wrote the books" is such a ridiculous rabbit hole to go down.

Agree.

To be honest I can't see that it really matters who wrote it. If the validity of some of the content is a bit questionable then that's on both of them. Can't imagine that one would write some made up cobblers and not tell the other about it.

EllieEllie25 · 10/07/2025 16:03

HonoriaBulstrode · 10/07/2025 14:24

Before he moved to North Wales Tim Walker was alleged to be not just a plasterer but a master plasterer. Plasterers are always in demand & well paid. I wonder why he didn't persevere with his trade even part time to bring in some extra cash.

Possibly by the time he needed the cash he no longer had sufficient mobility/manual dexterity. You do need to have a good range of movement in your arms.

Yes plastering is really gruelling physical work and involves your whole body, not just arms and legs. You need a lot of strength & coordination to keep the plaster on the tool & do the long smooth sweeps across the surface you’re working on.

AldoGordo · 10/07/2025 16:03

Fandango52 · 10/07/2025 12:36

Just wondering if it’s definitely proved that Izzy W T is an alias of Sally Walker? I know people on here were leaning towards that as a possibility, but I don’t think it’s been proved, has it?

It has been confirmed, indirectly, by her own statement yesterday that addresses the house raffle and the website creation. The image of Izzy looks like her. The description of Tim Scott matches that of Moth

DiamondThrone · 10/07/2025 16:04

I'm sure he was a "master" plasterer just like he was a "head" gardener... 🤔

ThatFluentHedgehog · 10/07/2025 16:06

User14March · 10/07/2025 14:44

Three gorgeous blondes that made Raynor jealous, with the ethereal beauty she once had, she says. A multi millionaire, ‘Grant’, lures them there with his last ice-cream van resource, rhubarb-flavoured lollies. Why was he driving an ice-cream van? Was he also ‘justified & ancient’. Ah! But really this was all a cover as Grant had a sleek 4x4 hidden in the hedge. When Raynor had drunk all the water in the taps, & opened her mouth to top up on water in the shower….

Moth is plied with beer & rich lasagne by an attentive ‘stunning’ blonde with swishy hair…They name him ‘Simon’ & beauteous maidens , two no less (!) lead him to the massage parlour. No admittance for jealous Raynor..Isn’t this how soft porn begins? He tells her ‘the girls I thought had very artistic hands’. My bad, no they thought HE had very ‘artistic hands’…’So SIMON’ says Raynor, ‘what happened in the other room’?! ‘What happens in the orchard stays in the orchard’ says ‘Simon’…Angela Carter meets…Hans C Anderson…meets…?

There's a connection here with Gangani publishers – one of the director's career highlights was being an ice-cream van driver. Could TSP be self-referencing (oh so wittily)? Are they hiding wealth too and alluding to that it in Googleable sight? Like criminals who like to leave a little "tell"?

They either think themselves very clever or are just weird.

Fandango52 · 10/07/2025 16:09

AldoGordo · 10/07/2025 16:03

It has been confirmed, indirectly, by her own statement yesterday that addresses the house raffle and the website creation. The image of Izzy looks like her. The description of Tim Scott matches that of Moth

How was it confirmed? Sorry if it sounds like I’m picking holes or being slow!

EternalLodga · 10/07/2025 16:09

ThatFluentHedgehog · 10/07/2025 16:06

There's a connection here with Gangani publishers – one of the director's career highlights was being an ice-cream van driver. Could TSP be self-referencing (oh so wittily)? Are they hiding wealth too and alluding to that it in Googleable sight? Like criminals who like to leave a little "tell"?

They either think themselves very clever or are just weird.

Well spotted!!!

Uricon2 · 10/07/2025 16:10

I'm now totally fascinated by his accent. Do people born and bred in Leicestershire hang on to the hard G at the end of words for grim death like that, because it really is a Black Country thing (and I say that with the greatest affection and pride)

ZoeCM · 10/07/2025 16:17

What's telling is the difference not just in Ros Hemmings' and Raynor Winn's accounts of events, but in the way they tell them. Ros Hemmings explicitly accuses Winn of stealing money. She gives figures. She describes discovering the theft after working through the books with her husband. She specifically mentions Winn's claim that she had to sell her mother's wedding dress. In short, the account she gave the journalist is detailed and relevant.

Then look at Winn's version of events. She says "mistakes were being made by the company", and expresses regret for any mistakes she herself made. But she gives absolutely no indication of what these mistakes were. She says it was a "pressured time", but doesn't explain the relevance - does she mean she was overworked, and therefore made mistakes? Or does she mean she was desperate for money and therefore stole?

She then says Martin Hemmings reported her to the police for taking money from the company. She says she reached a settlement with him because she "did not have the evidence required to support what happened". But she doesn't say what happened, or why she couldn't provide evidence of it. It's all so vague.

Surely, if you'd been falsely (and publicly) accused of embezzling £64K, you'd explicitly deny it? You wouldn't dance around it the way Winn does.

ShedSister · 10/07/2025 16:17

ShedSister · 10/07/2025 15:41

Here's an interview with Sally Raworth from Waterstones, 54 minutes in Moth gets dragged in and is asked about Raynor's writing ability.
He is arguably a better speaker than his wife.
Joint Collab?

Interviewer " you must be very, very proud of your wife"
Moth " oh, so so proud, I can't say. She's an amazing woman really, really keeps me on my toes"
Interviewer "and did you nort have any idea she could write, at all"
Moth " um, no, not at all. I know we, we like so many folks, we enjoy reading and we thoroughly enjoy taking books and stories apart and trying, you know, to express our feelings and you know and just discuss a very good story but no not that she could write. No completely surprised me"

mycatismyworld · 10/07/2025 16:18

Uricon2 · 10/07/2025 16:10

I'm now totally fascinated by his accent. Do people born and bred in Leicestershire hang on to the hard G at the end of words for grim death like that, because it really is a Black Country thing (and I say that with the greatest affection and pride)

He's 100% Burton upon Trent/ Stoke / Stafford and not black country. I'm from the West Midlands and I saw an clip of tge film. The actor sounded a bit brummie/ wolverhampton I thought

TheTwoOfUs · 10/07/2025 16:18

Uricon2 · 10/07/2025 16:10

I'm now totally fascinated by his accent. Do people born and bred in Leicestershire hang on to the hard G at the end of words for grim death like that, because it really is a Black Country thing (and I say that with the greatest affection and pride)

I agree he doesn't sound Leicestershire at all to me, and while I'm not from there, I lived there for a few years.

PopeJoan2 · 10/07/2025 16:21

I listened to a few podcasts she features on hoping to catch her out in lies. However I have to be honest and say that she sounds completely genuine. And nice.

i haven’t read the books but listening to her she sounds like a good soul. Could it be that she believes everything she writes/says but is somewhat deluded?

I fancy myself an amateur expert on liars but couldn’t hear anything like that with her.

I await future revelations.

User14March · 10/07/2025 16:21

ThatFluentHedgehog · 10/07/2025 16:06

There's a connection here with Gangani publishers – one of the director's career highlights was being an ice-cream van driver. Could TSP be self-referencing (oh so wittily)? Are they hiding wealth too and alluding to that it in Googleable sight? Like criminals who like to leave a little "tell"?

They either think themselves very clever or are just weird.

Was my bad on multi millionaire, bald, Grant of nubile blonde fame multi-tasking as an ice-cream driver too…but in my defence, he did appear from nowhere by the unwanted rhubarb lollies & Raymoth do like to ‘roam the land’ :)

ThatFluentHedgehog · 10/07/2025 16:22

TheTwoOfUs · 10/07/2025 15:14

It's one of the odd interludes that don't quite work, like the running Simon Armitage gag. (You have a vision of an editor saying 'I don't really get this' and RW saying 'But it really happened!' And no, no idea why, even if they did believe Moth was the Poet Laureate, she would depict the beautiful PA and the nanny massaging a topless Moth while his wife took photos, and Grant asking whether he could use the photos for 'publicity' for a wine business...?)

I wondered if RW had included it because 'Grant' tells Raynor a tall tale. According to him, he tramped with a knapsack all over Europe, living on fresh air, ended up sleeping rough in an Italian vineyard, learned everything he could about wine, then came home and started wine trading out of a disused warehouse until he made his millions and attracted 'all the beautiful girls in his household'-- then his wife says 'Take no notice. He studied wine in evening classes and his father got him a job with a wine trader.'

After which there is the now much-picked-over line:

I thought about Grant’s tale and why he felt driven to tell it. When you tell a story, the first person you must convince is yourself; if you can make yourself believe it’s true, then everyone else will follow. Grant wanted to be the person he had created: hard done by, struggling through life’s adversities, but making good on his own wits, rather than the son of a wealthy father with connections.

She goes on to say their own story was 'created out of self-protection' to avoid being 'othered' and rejected as homeless, by changing only one word in their otherwise true story, that they had 'sold', rather than 'lost', their home.

PP (perhaps@Bruisername?) said they wouldn't be surprised if the book were a joint effort. It could be that TW (Moth) added in a few 'hilarious' interludes.

I agree with the other PP who pointed out if written by TW then RW's statement saying Moth didn't make up his illness, when noone is pointing at him but instead suggesting the author made it up/misrepresented it/exaggerated it, makes sense.

That said, the statement is nonsensical in other areas!

I totally follow the thinking re male gaze but feel the massage scene could equally have been written by a woman, his wife, as in "ooh my husband is so desirable!"

TorroFerney · 10/07/2025 16:24

PopeJoan2 · 10/07/2025 16:21

I listened to a few podcasts she features on hoping to catch her out in lies. However I have to be honest and say that she sounds completely genuine. And nice.

i haven’t read the books but listening to her she sounds like a good soul. Could it be that she believes everything she writes/says but is somewhat deluded?

I fancy myself an amateur expert on liars but couldn’t hear anything like that with her.

I await future revelations.

Crikey mate I hope you never get called for jury service !!

Uricon2 · 10/07/2025 16:27

mycatismyworld · 10/07/2025 16:18

He's 100% Burton upon Trent/ Stoke / Stafford and not black country. I'm from the West Midlands and I saw an clip of tge film. The actor sounded a bit brummie/ wolverhampton I thought

I'm not familiar with Burton/Stoke/Stafford accents so quite prepared to be wrong.

Aspanielstolemysanity · 10/07/2025 16:27

PopeJoan2 · 10/07/2025 16:21

I listened to a few podcasts she features on hoping to catch her out in lies. However I have to be honest and say that she sounds completely genuine. And nice.

i haven’t read the books but listening to her she sounds like a good soul. Could it be that she believes everything she writes/says but is somewhat deluded?

I fancy myself an amateur expert on liars but couldn’t hear anything like that with her.

I await future revelations.

I used to be like that. I used to think my ex believed all his lies. No, some people are just more at ease lying that they are being honest

ThatFluentHedgehog · 10/07/2025 16:31

Aspanielstolemysanity · 10/07/2025 15:25

I think the whole "moth wrote the books" is such a ridiculous rabbit hole to go down.

And you're free to have that opinion! Personally, I find it a lot less ridiculous than I would have found someone stopping me in the street a week ago to say oh did you know The Salt Path's premise is actually a complete lie, the author stole £64,000 and despite having 3 bestsellers and a film out still owes a garage £800.

AldoGordo · 10/07/2025 16:31

prh47bridge · 10/07/2025 12:06

Having now taken a look at the letters, I don't think they are all written by the same doctor. The 2019 letter may have been written by the doctor who reviewed the book. It is the right trust and the qualifications match, but that falls short of proof. The other two letters come from a different NHS trust and the writer's qualifications are not given.

The 2025 letter is very odd. It is addressed to "Dear colleague" whereas the others are addressed to named individuals. It also spends time praising the Walkers and talks about the film. I'm not sure why that would be included in a letter regarding a medical consultation.

The same neurologist also works out of a North Wales trust, so it could him writinh those two other letters, but yes speculation. Those letters may seem odd but they appear to be internal correspondence between the neurologist and another professional, perhaps Moth's GP? That's how I interpret them. Of course, nothing is proven but it's merely an observation of possibility.

Fandango52 · 10/07/2025 16:33

Catwith69lives · 10/07/2025 15:46

The controversy over TSP doesn't seem to have harmed her book sales one iota TSP is #2 in Amazon UK sales this week!

Maybe PRH will forge ahead with the October launch of 'On Winter Hill'.

As they say, all publicity is good publicity 😂

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