Thread 6: 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 item in the Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

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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

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Thread 5 Thread 5: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

NB Please be careful when it comes to naming or implicating people who aren't in the public eye or have no connection to the story, especially where details are unclear or still emerging i.e. DON'T DO IT.

Keep on the path. No saltiness. Thank you.

New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the three Observer articles before posting.

I've bought the Observer paper as website seems to be struggling to load. Don't mind giving extra support for this. Well deserved.

I reckon that given the One Show programme 23 June 2025 with Jason Isaacs and RW/SW Moth makes a video appearance and the background is very rural. Sunny day but the field in the background is very green and lush. So obviously not a drought place in England.

I'm not a medical expert but it doesn't ring true that someone with a degenerative neurological condition would go from yomping on hikes to being told they have weeks to live. In fact, if you are at that stage you will probably have almost lost, or completely lost, your ability to talk. People with degenerative neurological conditions gradually decline. With conditions such as MND that decline is usually steep and brutal but, nevertheless, a process. Perhaps people may correct me but doctors handing an expiry date to someone who is walking and talking and generally functional seems highly unlikely.

It's all so shameless.

It also adds to the feeling that the Winns/Taylors are perhaps not truly into walking, nature, farming, rewinding, etc.. I had assumed that the embezzlement came out of desperation at being unable to pay the mortgage after struggling to make their Welsh idyll pay. Now I wonder if Sally just likes shopping or online gambling or if their actual dream is to be property developers?

Also, every time somebody posts an extract of Sally's writing on here I can't believe how cringeworthy and hackneyed it is. The way she describes the city-dwelling cider farm guy makes her and Tim sound like the pair who ran the shop in The League of Gentlemen. 'Thems hands had never felt the sharp sting of the frost as they plucked turnips from the peaty earth in a Michaelmas storm. Thems hands had never plunged into the hot, quickening belly of a grateful mother stoat to rescue her dying, desperate kits. Thems be soft city hands, theys be.' I'd like to see Craig Brown do a parody of it.

On the question of legal action, it is too late for this individual to use the courts to recover the debt. The 6-year limitation period has long since expired. The debt still exists, but he can't use the courts to enforce it.

Noy my area of expertise, but I wonder if there is scope for the Walkers' creditor to argue that the limitation period should be extended - if the couple acted dishonestly and/or disappeared to avoid the debt it would seem unjust that the creditors would have to suck that up.

At present the Observer cannot guarantee 100% that there isn’t a letter from 2013 giving a poor prognosis. Sally/Win is likely to be called out on this & asked directly where the 2013 letter is. Only then when she cannot produce it will they put the boot in by confidently declaring that it was only in 2015 after the alleged coastal path walk that the diagnosis was made.

It's one of the DM ones.

Just a reminder since @DisappointedReader is probably catching up on sleep, please don't anyone identify the NHS Trusts or other info found from redacting! We don't want any more visits from MNHQ!

@EsmaCannonball

PMSL!!! 😂😂😂😂

@Heylittlesongbird

I would love to hear Bill Coles thoughts on whether the farm house he rented to them was as run down as their descriptions. I suspect not.

Someone in an earlier thread posted a GoogleEarth pic from 2009. It looked a bit tired but not at all run down.

You’re completely correct it deteriorates one way. Some have flares and remission like MS but the general trend is downwards. In addition most doctors are extremely wary of putting timelines on these things as they vary so much ( see Stephen Hawkins vs Rob Burrow). The only exception to this is normally when they’re ready to classify you as terminal and they have to give the 6 month limit out as that’s what triggers early life insurance payouts and certain benefit fast tracks. Hopefully a doctor of some form will be along to chip in and clarify - I’m just talking from experience as a patient.

Never look a gift horse in the mouth? It was easy money - yes you have to research and write a book (actual walking research is optional) but you get feted by your publisher and press and then the £££ roll in. Rather than being the village pariahs like they must have been in Wales they were local celebrities in Cornwall.

The film was ill advised but maybe the cash was too tempting and they wanted to enjoy their celebrity status for as long as possible. They thought the extra cash was worth the risk of being uncovered. And it was only a few 5 minute tv appearances and a few newspaper interviews under a different name.

But the 2015 letter states that it was only in the most recent appointment that CBD was mentioned as a possible diagnosis, after an eye examination that day.

I'm beginning to think that they never walked anywhere - well perhaps a drive in the car, got out took a few photos then left, and had no interest in re wilding.

@placemats the amount of rain we get here in Cornwall keep the fields green! I would have been more impressed if they’d done the coast path walk during the winter when the hail and mizzle comes down hard

Just watched the Rick Stein Cornwall cider episode (U streaming Series 3, ep 2) for the first time.

SW says about Cornwall “it’s become home, and when you’ve had that taken away from you it’s something very special”

Taken away! Astonishing revamp of events. But I get the sense that she believes it, or has convinced herself that ‘Raynor Winn’, her alter ego, has in fact experienced a different set of events than Sally Walker did. That’s the beauty of a new name isn’t it? It comes with a new history that better suits your new character and persona. Who will she play next I wonder?

Does anyone know if Tim's diagnosis has any evidential basis (tests, scans) apart from just symptoms he says he has?

The letters shared in SW’s statement do describe some sort of eye movement test that couldn’t be faked.

I've said not a drought place in England. Parts of England are still green and lush.

Can I just add please ( and I have no skin in the game) the new observer is actually a really good read - lots of good features with many old school journos - please support them whether you are left/right or whatever politically , it’s not particularly lefty either , just a good read

Tim, Sally and their doctors know this. But the doctors aren’t allowed to speak out due to patient confidentiality. And for some reason Tim and Sally don’t seem to want to share that info.

(But they were dropped by the PSP charity last week so read into that what you will.)

What is angrifying me at the moment is that many people would give their eye teeth to have someone offer them a lovely detached period home in the Cornish countryside at a reduced rent in exchange for some work on the farm.

That's a dream for a lot of people.

They just wanted the nice house (they thought they deserved it), and probably thought they were doing Bill Cole a favour just by living there.

I’ve seen and it’s even more embarrassing than the first one! It acknowledges the CBD diagnosis but then implies that because the disease is “indolent” then it’s as if it never happened (so basically, huge bit of backpedaling there).

No acknowledgement of any of the other of the author’s rebuttals, they just focus on telling people what an awful person she is. Now, people are allowed to believe what they like, but I for one find it odd that they have not properly addressed any of the defence that the author posted.

But then, this is just Observer acting like the many other “gutter press” newspapers out there. They publish a claim, with no evidence, which is then found to be untrue. Instead of apologising, they double down and make up more nonsense because they know some people are gullible enough to believe anything. I wouldn’t waste my breath of this silly story, there are far worse things going on in the world!

I think they've scoped out a few places, and probably walked a bit of the SWCP because they were on the run, but that's it.

I was just reading SW's statement again. She says:

"I reached a settlement with Martin Hemmings because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened."

That echoes what she said about the court case that lost them the house: that they didn't have the evidence needed to support their case and by the time they found it, it was too late.

So twice, at crucial moments, the evidence needed to get them out of a hole is lacking.

Coincidence?

I feel like i’ve read different pieces to you!

‘Far worse things going on in the world’

a well used way to try and deflect attention

not sure you’re posting in good faith as the journalist has clarified the things SW put in her rebuttal

Ha - we’re back and that post was from ages ago

i I think it’s probably best not to engage!