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 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.

They're either feeling hopeful, or they're placeholding and doing a bit of "wait and see".

See my reply above - you can’t fool all of the people all of the time but she just needs to fool some of the people some of the time

Absolutely - her latest instagram post with the 2025 specialist's letter got nearly 10K thumbs ups!

Thanks for this.

As far as RayMoth are concerned, as Countryfile reported them as living on the Lizard earlier this year and RaySal chose to tell a Q&A audience member that they live in Gweek, we are ok with that here as it has been placed in the public domain by RaySal. Trying to find the house or address would be a step too far however, so let's not do that. Of course it might not be true or they might not still be there now.

Trying to find the current whereabouts of other people around the story needs to be off-limits.

No, they probably prefer to use their common sense rather than believe silly, baseless rumours - much like myself!

For goodness sake, this isn’t primary school where it’s “oh but she said this”/ “oh no she didn’t” scenario.

The Observer have since acknowledged that the property in France they showed wasn’t in fact Winn’s at all, and in a previous article more or less admitted that they’d made a mistake regarding the CBD (which bizarrely, they have now retracted).

Still, I accept that some people prefer to believe a newspaper which has been caught lying. I’ve seen people banging on about integrity of the author etc and whilst I’m not condoning any of her actions, the newspaper lying like that isn’t exactly a shining example of integrity either.

That’s a big if. However I am reminded of the fact that the average IQ is only 100. And that means that half the population have an IQ below this average. Whether they read non fiction books is not clear.

I was surprised at the line "it was a pressurised time for me. It was also a time mistakes were made in the business" very telling when she was talking about the embezzlement. Also why point out the financial crunch occurred after she was working there?

To me she's saying she didn't do anything wrong and that the business wasn't well run. Even if that were the case, she was bookkeeper, why didn't she tell Hemmings of the errors? Why was it pressurised?

The 2008 crunch was swift. There was an impact on the housing market...but no one saw it coming at their level. So why mention it? To obscure the facts? to push the ideal the business was struggling? Which given it was pre 2008 no it wouldn't have been.

Also if there was no evidence to prove Her innocence, clearly there was to proof that something was admiss, otherwise, why would the police have talked to Her and why would she have paid him money. Clearly Mrs Hennings has proof of Her payments.

Her statement looks like it's been written by a very good pr. Company or even ai, using emotive language from the start, not addressing the details of how she lost her house, making statements that are clearly not true as there is no way post the hacking scandal would a newspaper like the Observer print if they had been approached by lawyers/Winn.

Some people will never trust the papers

i suspect the CBD charity has rather more knowledge and would not have dropped them so quickly if they had received adequate reassurances

I agree with both those statements.

I do think that Sally Walker believes this will all blow over and the nasty people will go away, and they'll blag their way to more success.

We're on day 8 though, and every single paper and outlet has covered it, with various journos heading off to France to check out (and advertise) the property there. Journos have spoken to locals in France, the mayor who says they owe taxes, Bill Cole and friend, locals around Haye Farm, some members of Tim's family, Martin Hemmings' sister, and people in Pwhlleli

Chloe H is still investigating, so at some point in the fairly near future it will resurface, even if it dies down a bit now.

The situation with Tim's CBS diagnosis is hard to grasp but Chloe Hadjimatheou did a very good explanation of it, as laid out by various neurologists.

You have a set of symptoms which form a clinical picture, and in the absence of any clear disease to cause those symptoms, the diagnosis may be CBS. If there is degradation of the relevant part of the brain observed, then that is a clear disease and is referred to as CBD. Additionally, CBD may be diagnosed at autopsy. CBD has not been observed in this indolent form previously.

I think I've got that right but I'm not a neurologist. I also, for the record, don't think the Observer has messed up with its reporting?

TBH I'm far more interested in the verifiable lies and the theft of money.

Yes indeed - but surely if they had a 2013 letter they would have used it, to avoid awkward questions? And if they didn't have a copy any more (as I probably wouldn't), couldn't they get it from the medical practitioner concerned?

I am interested in their former lives in Burton on Trent and Abersoch. I can’t believe there aren’t stories to be told!

If the charity had asked for evidence supporting a diagnosis date in 2013 for the terminal illness & that evidence was not forthcoming it would have been prudent to drop the Walker/Winns tout de suite.

And perhaps they sent PSPA the letters they've released, and PSPA was, understandably, not very happy.

Yes but the fact they haven’t published a 2013 letter yet doesn’t definitively prove it doesn’t exist. Drs can’t go on the record with his medical history due to patient confidentiality so newspaper lawyers are in a tight spot about how far they can go with the narrative that the terminal diagnosis was a lie.

Not the A Browne who was my MP a few years ago…?

ETS no, I think he’d be too young, but the name jumped out at me. Sorry for derailing.

I very much doubt it since the MP was born some years after the Walkers.

Yes, a bit of both, I imagine. It’s what I’d do in their shoes.

They will already have poured a lot of resources into OWH at this late stage, even if it hasn’t gone to the printers or gone out in galley form as advance copies — multiple rounds of editing, copyediting, proofreading, cover-design etc etc. They won’t want to foreclose their options at this point. Leave the door open for a revised OWH with an introduction putting the Walkers’ version of events, or a substantially different mea culpa, if it passes a detailed legal read and they think it will sell. From a purely economic POV, it’s still valuable IP.

Interestingly Hendy was the surname of one of the "About Us" team at Gangani publisher

It's a big story now and we're in the summer. Short of a major unforeseeable event taking over, I think the Observer certainly will want to keep up any momentum and other news sources will also be digging.

Journalists these days going out doorstepping during a scandal is less of a thing so strange to see it happening with this a bit. Not that it's really in any way comparable 😂, but my DH said that at when Profumo broke "Every hack in London was riding around in taxis looking for a new angle and full of their own importance". This even included him as a baby (teenage) reporter. He even managed to come face to face with Christine Keeler, more by luck than judgement.

@DisappointedReader I can't personally vouch for the veracity of the poster who related the Q&A anecdote revealing a place name, which is why I reported and asked for that post and the one elaborating on it to be removed. Others too possibly.

Even if true, it occurred before this furore erupted. It's just not safe: we never know who might be reading; and it definitely won't feel safe to those at the centre of the story, already being justifiably scrutinised.

Besides, knowing current whereabouts is unnecessary.

Now you've repeated the place name, and I wish you hadn't! Still time to edit and remove?

@Aspanielstolemysanity with publishing memoir genre books, the onus really is on the writer to ensure their account is truthful, honest, factual.

They will have signed documents and papers to that tune.

Publishers may give some material to lawyers for a check over regarding anything that could get the publisher in trouble (slander etc) but really no due diligence is done to ensure content is truthful.

Perhaps this may change the publishing industry for this genre. Or we may see less of it published?

I bet every journo involved has jumped at the chance to have a jolly in the south of France!

My DH has walked both the West Highland Way and Cape wrath trail and just laughed when I said Moth walked it with his illness in autumn/winter.
DH said either Moth isn't ill or they didn't do the walk, absolutely no way.