Page 6 | Thread 4: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

Choux · 09/07/2025 22:30

Comet33 · 09/07/2025 22:29

Time to draw a line under this and move on - these threads have long since ceased to be a place to discuss shock and confusion at the Observer article and have turned into witch hunts.

Some of you won't be happy unless you have access to every piece of medical evidence and will still use semantics to dispute Moth's diagnosis.

Feel free to leave the thread…

PracticallyPeapod · 09/07/2025 22:31

Ammophila · 09/07/2025 22:26

Again, I really hope not. I follow Chloe Dalton on Instagram and she's posted so many photos of Hare. No tales of terminal illness, just a rescued leveret, raised against all odds to become an adult hare.

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Doesn’t sound exciting enough to be made up

Namechangedfortheterfasaurs · 09/07/2025 22:32

I had never heard of the books or the film (I evidently live under a rock). However I have read the threads with fascination.

The statement is hilarious. The absolutely central allegation is that she embezzled money from her employer and she doesn’t deny it. “Made mistakes” and “didn’t have the evidence to support what happened” is a very long way from “I deny I stole any money but I was afraid I might be prosecuted so I paid up out of fear.” As for “money paid on a non admission of liability basis” - that is absolutely standard in a settlement agreement.

Am I right in thinking there’s another sleight of hand in the statement? She says that the dispute with her employer was not the court case in the book that led to her losing her home. Nobody suggested it was, did they? The court case that led to her home
being repossessed was brought by the people who purchased the debt she owed to someone else as a result of borrowing to pay off her employer.

User14March · 09/07/2025 22:33

Bluecat7 · 09/07/2025 22:23

I think she may have written the book believing her own lies. Some people actually do this- their fabrications become their truth.

She says as much in the book.

PrincessFiorimonde · 09/07/2025 22:33

SomethingFun · 09/07/2025 22:10

I don’t get the impression that she thinks she’s done anything wrong. Her boss had more money than her, she needed and felt she deserved more money so she took it. When she was found out she didn’t want to get a criminal record so she found someone else with money and took out a loan I imagine she had no intention of paying back to pay the first lot off. But she sees herself as a good and nice and kind person who has fallen on hard times and she deserves these things and people with more than her obviously don’t deserve their things and you can take them off them and it just balances out. From the free cups of tea and nicking hot water for a shower to paying off your embezzlement with a loan, it’s the same behaviour and motivation. Marketing this behaviour as being a free spirit and at one with nature is genius.

I think you make some good points here.

ramonaquimby · 09/07/2025 22:34

I reckon they didn't even walk the path
I really didn't like the book, didn't finish it, mine was an unpopular opinion at the time

FurryHappyKittens · 09/07/2025 22:34

Comet33 · 09/07/2025 22:29

Time to draw a line under this and move on - these threads have long since ceased to be a place to discuss shock and confusion at the Observer article and have turned into witch hunts.

Some of you won't be happy unless you have access to every piece of medical evidence and will still use semantics to dispute Moth's diagnosis.

No one needs any more medical evidence. Sally has provided the lack of it all by herself.

Is that the angle she's going with then, semantics?

Choux · 09/07/2025 22:34

Le Village du Dropt doesn’t look at all like a property developer’s dream. But saying that she ‘saved’ her relative’s French idyll from a nasty developer taps into the British NIMBY-ism feeling. An Englishman’s home is his castle etc (even in France). She knows how to reach and manipulate her audience.

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

HolyPond · 09/07/2025 22:35

Redheadedstepchild · 09/07/2025 21:03

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’d love if someone produced photos. The descriptions of him as he was in their early days in The Wild Silence (a blue RAF trenchcoat, ragged waistcoat and plaits) sound wonderful.

PracticallyPeapod · 09/07/2025 22:35

Saltpathpuzzle · 09/07/2025 22:23

I live less than 5 mins from where the “French house” is. I don’t have any special information but I think I can give a good perspective on that element of the story. There’s not the slightest chance that that property would have been under threat from a “developer”. It’s basically a farm building and mostly vineyard adjacent (not fancy vineyards).

It’s hard to estimate the value without knowing the amount of land attached, but back when they bought it it would definitely have been cheap (and in no-one’s wildest dreams worth the £200K+ of their remortgage). For a comparison, as of today you can buy a nice 3 bed house with a pool around here for under 200K. So a tumble down wreck in 2007, I don’t know… £20,000 maybe?

Still the claim that an estate agent said it wasn’t worth marketing is also nonsense. An estate agent will take anything on. No skin off their nose… and the purchaser pays the agent’s fees here, so it wouldn’t even have cost them anything to try.

The claim that there is no electricity, water or sanitation sounds unlikely. How do you think that the vineyards next door, their owners and workers live and function? Or the other houses in the hamlet? There are also many campsites in the area if they did need facilities.

I also think it’s untrue that they haven’t been here since 2007. A local friend told me a very strange story. A woman (who she now recognises from the photos) befriended her on Twitter over a shared interest in organic gardening. The woman said she had a house in SW France, nearby to my friend, and asked if she could meet my friend next time they were here.

In due course that did happen and the mystery woman and her partner came to lunch. My friend was bewildered as the woman appeared actually to have no interest in gardening at all and spent her time asking intrusive financial questions. When my friend asked where their house was, bizarrely the woman said “she couldn’t remember”. Eventually the meal ended, the couple left and my friend never heard from her again, not even a thank you note. This was around 2015. So…? Who knows… maybe it was RayMoth… maybe not. But a strange story.

Lastly, for what it’s worth, RayMoth looks very vaguely familiar. I’ve can’t shake the feeling I’ve seen her round. Maybe in a local bar, maybe in the supermarket. I don’t know. I think there’s a lot more to the French angle than meets the eye. And I don’t think they’d have to be hiding/not visiting because of French taxes. A polite visit to FranceServices in your local town would be enough to sort that out. They’re very helpful about that kind of thing here.

Just love this intel. They sound really bloody weird.

Merrymouse · 09/07/2025 22:36

diningiswest · 09/07/2025 22:20

FWIW here is the full review, which is mainly notable for being worse written than The Salt Path;

"We don’t often review best sellers in ACNR, still less travel books. But ‘The Salt Path’ is a bestselling travel book with a neurological twist. It is written by a woman married to a person recently diagnosed with Corticobasal degeneration. And for good measure, they have just contended with legal and financial catastrophe too.
It is a medical book in the sense of showing the limitations of our profession. Perhaps the best that can be said for Medicine here, is that it comes out of the story better than the Law!
A point that’s highly relevant to medical practice, however, is a recurring theme of The Salt Path: when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. That’s if you allow yourself to try, and are willing to risk that you might die laughing in the effort…What was that they said about the best medicine?
While Cornwall comes out better than either Medicine or the Law, the hero of the piece is an abstraction of the indomitable human spirit. It inhabits all of us from time to time, except the most unlucky. It certainly inhabits the travellers on ‘The Salt Path’ as they journey on; and one perceives that, having journeyed, this spirit will be all the stronger in the event of future travails.
I must say that Raynor Winn (et al!) provide a compelling (if not scientifically irrefutable) case for the benefits of positive action and of physical therapy, even for the ghastliest of neurodegenerative conditions. Of course, this is something which resonates with data presented more formally by our colleagues in Rehabilitation Science of late; that includes a paper in a very recent edition of the ‘other’ Clinical Neuroscience journal which comes through the door of many UK neurologists.
The Salt Path is a ‘feel good’ read for clinicians in Neuroscience; there can be life, even when there is no cure. I think its positivity might also benefit some of our patients, perhaps many of them."

A point that’s highly relevant to medical practice, however, is a recurring theme of The Salt Path: when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. That’s if you allow yourself to try, and are willing to risk that you might die laughing in the effort…What was that they said about the best medicine?

This is a review from a Doctor?

Is it a Doctor who doesn’t see patients?

Fandango52 · 09/07/2025 22:37

Namechangedfortheterfasaurs · 09/07/2025 22:32

I had never heard of the books or the film (I evidently live under a rock). However I have read the threads with fascination.

The statement is hilarious. The absolutely central allegation is that she embezzled money from her employer and she doesn’t deny it. “Made mistakes” and “didn’t have the evidence to support what happened” is a very long way from “I deny I stole any money but I was afraid I might be prosecuted so I paid up out of fear.” As for “money paid on a non admission of liability basis” - that is absolutely standard in a settlement agreement.

Am I right in thinking there’s another sleight of hand in the statement? She says that the dispute with her employer was not the court case in the book that led to her losing her home. Nobody suggested it was, did they? The court case that led to her home
being repossessed was brought by the people who purchased the debt she owed to someone else as a result of borrowing to pay off her employer.

I had the same thoughts about the statement.

Also, in the statement, she says: “Mr Hemmings made an allegation against me to the police, accusing me of taking money from the company. I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions.” She doesn’t mention she was arrested though (which is mentioned in the Observer article).

ClareBlue · 09/07/2025 22:39

Comet33 · 09/07/2025 22:29

Time to draw a line under this and move on - these threads have long since ceased to be a place to discuss shock and confusion at the Observer article and have turned into witch hunts.

Some of you won't be happy unless you have access to every piece of medical evidence and will still use semantics to dispute Moth's diagnosis.

This is a strange well written post that misses the human side of the threads. You see, there's no confusion about the article and there's definitely not synatics around the published medical correspondence. Nobody has interpreted what the letters say, they have just read them and tied them to timeliness in the book and the rather strange, in people's opinion, content in the Feb letter.
I think the damage limitation Bot has entered the thread.

outofofficeagain · 09/07/2025 22:40

Fandango52 · 09/07/2025 22:37

I had the same thoughts about the statement.

Also, in the statement, she says: “Mr Hemmings made an allegation against me to the police, accusing me of taking money from the company. I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions.” She doesn’t mention she was arrested though (which is mentioned in the Observer article).

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She wasn’t charged or sanctioned because she repaid the money she was accused of stealing in return for an NDA and a promise not to press charges. Her statement doesn’t deny that part either.

mauvishagain · 09/07/2025 22:41

Re the neurologist's book review - some of you might not like it, or think the consultant should be investigated, but why?

Doctors are human.They read books. I can quite see that someone would be interested to read a book written by one of their patients, especially when it deals with the medical problems that they are treating.

I used to review books for various medical publications, some august and others less so. Publishers would send the books to the magazine editors who would forward them to people like me who had volunteered to read them. No payment was given though I could keep the book afterwards! (yippee dooo!)

The consultant has done no wrong in offering up this review and I don't see why anyone would think otherwise (whether you appreciate his writing style is neither here nor there!)

FurryHappyKittens · 09/07/2025 22:41

Not speaking out is what resulted in Sally Walker being able to hoodwink everyone for seven years.

If you would like to get in touch with Chloe Hadjimatheou about a story, you can email [email protected]

Fandango52 · 09/07/2025 22:43

outofofficeagain · 09/07/2025 22:40

She wasn’t charged or sanctioned because she repaid the money she was accused of stealing in return for an NDA and a promise not to press charges. Her statement doesn’t deny that part either.

Show quote history

I know she wasn’t charged or sanctioned. I’m saying she doesn’t mention she was arrested. I can understand why she’s decided not to mention that, but isn’t that quite a big omission?

AnOlderGranny · 09/07/2025 22:45

I worked for Martin Hemmings in the years before the economic crash of 2008. For me it was a pressured time. It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.

Mr Hemmings made an allegation against me to the police, accusing me of taking money from the company. I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions.
I reached a settlement with Martin Hemmings because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened.
The terms of the settlement were willingly agreed by both parties; Mr Hemmings was as keen to reach a private resolution as I was.

A part of that settlement was that I would pay money to Mr Hemmings on a ‘non-admissions basis’. This is why we needed the money back from Cooper that we invested and I come on to that next.

What exactly does she mean here?
I take it to mean she did take some money. But she writes the above in such a way as to elicit sympathy.
'A time when mistakes were being made in the business' - meaning what?

So is she shifting the blame to the Hemmings? It doesn't negate her stealing if that is what she did.

She implies Hemmings had a shady past too- mistakes being made, him wanting a resolution as well- again, trying to cast doubt and blame on him?

MrsKypp · 09/07/2025 22:46

@Comet33 Your post makes it clear you and your loved ones have not been diagnosed with a condition similar to the one claimed in the books.

Most people have something wrong with them physically by the time they reach middle age. Moth had something, but clearly nowhere near as horrendous as what they claimed in the books.

Then Moth's symptoms were alleged to have been reversed by walking which is disgustingly cruel towards people who believed that and as a consequence believed their own symptoms could be reversed by walking, or also that they were being too weak if they didn't manage that sort of exercise.

It does have parallels with Belle Gibson.

I personally find Sally Walker an evil liar.

AnOlderGranny · 09/07/2025 22:46

Fandango52 · 09/07/2025 22:43

I know she wasn’t charged or sanctioned. I’m saying she doesn’t mention she was arrested. I can understand why she’s decided not to mention that, but isn’t that quite a big omission?

Show quote history

she does say she was questioned- and that appears to mean arrested.

NetZeroZealot · 09/07/2025 22:47

Fandango52 · 09/07/2025 22:43

I know she wasn’t charged or sanctioned. I’m saying she doesn’t mention she was arrested. I can understand why she’s decided not to mention that, but isn’t that quite a big omission?

Show quote history

She said she was questioned, she doesn’t need to say she was arrested.

FurryHappyKittens · 09/07/2025 22:48

She implies Hemmings had a shady past too- mistakes being made, him wanting a resolution as well- again, trying to cast doubt and blame on him?

That's her MO

Bruisername · 09/07/2025 22:48

mauvishagain · 09/07/2025 22:41

Re the neurologist's book review - some of you might not like it, or think the consultant should be investigated, but why?

Doctors are human.They read books. I can quite see that someone would be interested to read a book written by one of their patients, especially when it deals with the medical problems that they are treating.

I used to review books for various medical publications, some august and others less so. Publishers would send the books to the magazine editors who would forward them to people like me who had volunteered to read them. No payment was given though I could keep the book afterwards! (yippee dooo!)

The consultant has done no wrong in offering up this review and I don't see why anyone would think otherwise (whether you appreciate his writing style is neither here nor there!)

It’s more the implication that he is their neurologist (unproven) which would show a conflict of interest

Aspanielstolemysanity · 09/07/2025 22:48

diningiswest · 09/07/2025 22:20

FWIW here is the full review, which is mainly notable for being worse written than The Salt Path;

"We don’t often review best sellers in ACNR, still less travel books. But ‘The Salt Path’ is a bestselling travel book with a neurological twist. It is written by a woman married to a person recently diagnosed with Corticobasal degeneration. And for good measure, they have just contended with legal and financial catastrophe too.
It is a medical book in the sense of showing the limitations of our profession. Perhaps the best that can be said for Medicine here, is that it comes out of the story better than the Law!
A point that’s highly relevant to medical practice, however, is a recurring theme of The Salt Path: when you hit rock bottom, the only way is up. That’s if you allow yourself to try, and are willing to risk that you might die laughing in the effort…What was that they said about the best medicine?
While Cornwall comes out better than either Medicine or the Law, the hero of the piece is an abstraction of the indomitable human spirit. It inhabits all of us from time to time, except the most unlucky. It certainly inhabits the travellers on ‘The Salt Path’ as they journey on; and one perceives that, having journeyed, this spirit will be all the stronger in the event of future travails.
I must say that Raynor Winn (et al!) provide a compelling (if not scientifically irrefutable) case for the benefits of positive action and of physical therapy, even for the ghastliest of neurodegenerative conditions. Of course, this is something which resonates with data presented more formally by our colleagues in Rehabilitation Science of late; that includes a paper in a very recent edition of the ‘other’ Clinical Neuroscience journal which comes through the door of many UK neurologists.
The Salt Path is a ‘feel good’ read for clinicians in Neuroscience; there can be life, even when there is no cure. I think its positivity might also benefit some of our patients, perhaps many of them."

I think I've developed at least 3 new neurological conditions just from trying to make head or tail of that.

There's a big difference between " keeping as active as you safely can is a good thing" and "walking on rocky coastal paths can cause a magic reversal of a condition which is proven by brain scans".

I am curious to know his thoughts on that.

Ammophila · 09/07/2025 22:50

PracticallyPeapod · 09/07/2025 22:31

Doesn’t sound exciting enough to be made up

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I loved it. It's a quietly beautiful read and a solid 5 🌟 review from me. So far my favourite read of the year.