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.

Ah. Bill Cole states in 2024 that he welcomed Rick Stein "back" to the farm the previous year, and I've got that as the time he came when the Walkers were there.

RW would have been busy writing Landlines in 2022. Their 4 month walk ended Sept 2021 and the book published Sept 2022. How they managed to get around the whole Tim is dying thing from Bill is the big question mark. I'm assuming many heartfelt excuses to appeal to Bill's empathy. "Moth is still not well, but hanging in, so best you don't visit." Conjecture of course.

How does the statute apply if someone goes into hiding?

Yes. As well as Moth lying to Bill about having two months to live, we have Tim lying to his own brother that he needs a loan because Sally has credit card debt in Tim’s name. The brother lends the money but subsequently goes into bankruptcy which may not have happened if he hadn’t lent the money. Isn’t this the brother whose son called Tim and Sally ‘pathological liars’?

How on earth did they get from finishing the walk in Sep 2021 to the book being published in Sep 2022?

It's not unusual for it to be a year between the book being submitted and it being published.

I wonder if she'd already written quite a bit of it, and they just needed to do a recce to check out the places they were supposed to have been.

It's not a brother, it's an uncle.

Apologies if this question has already been answered on an earlier thread, but why did the Walkers list their house for sale at £395,000 in Jan 2010?

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.

Is it not the case that if the claimants can prove to a judge there was very good reason why they didn't pursue it within the limitation period a claim can go ahead.

I think you're getting confused...easily done. It was Tim's uncle who gave the loan, Anthony Browne (Tim's mum maiden name was Browne so could be her brother though I'm yet to make the connection in records). Uncle Anthony Browne is according to the DM piece.

If the names were Walker on the tenancy, it might be that the owner of the orchard was the one who queried the health claims with CH, and gave her their real names.

So read the observer response to her rebuttal and it was very simple and fact based

still doesn’t point out the earliest letter she shows is from after the walk

I think sally and Tim need to get professional advice and follow it but I suspect they are too arrogant to do so and will continue to dig a hole.

next step I’m guessing will be a bad turn in Tim’s health and a plea to be left alone

next step I’m guessing will be a bad turn in Tim’s health and a plea to be left alone

This sounds plausible. Then the fourth book will just fade away. And they'll continue to grift just more quietly.

The relevant legislation gives the courts discretion to extend the time limit in some circumstances, but the debtor doing a runner is not one of them. There are agencies that will track down missing people for a low fee, so those owed money by the Walkers could have used one of those. Having said that, given the amount of money involved he may still try. If the Walkers acknowledge the debt, the clock will be reset, and he will be able to take legal action against them.

If he does have a cause for action that isn't prevented by the Limitation Act, his first step will be to engage a solicitor who will write a letter before action, giving the Walkers 28 days to respond. We are therefore at least a month or two away from any legal action starting, and it will be much longer than that before it gets to court.

In all honesty, I hope he does find a way to sue them. Any money the Walkers have earned should go towards paying off the trail of debts they appear to have left behind them.

How long before they launch a new range of branded products ‘Moths Miracle Cures’ ? Made from genuine snake oil!

I think there is a certain amount of disquiet ( less on the mumsnet threads) but plenty on Facebook at being deceived by someone who is ‘one of their own’ similar look,class etc . It’s not dissimilar in a different end of the spectrum to those working class people who felt very let down on the Shannon Matthew’s case by the evil mother - they had been out all night searching for the little girl - so many people bought into this tale of overcoming adversity - they don’t want to believe it’s likely to be a bit of fact mixed in with a pile of poop - i feel sorry for the publishers and the film company too and if they get away with not being sued they are lucky people. Also don’t place it all on her, the guy is less to blame but must have known the score - they should have simply sold the French land and kept their heads down -

Oh, but she said she'd already paid them all off...

I wonder whether Raymoth will make further comment in the next week or so, or just slink away.

What possible comment could they make now...judging by previous smoke and mirrors perhaps that because Moths illness is complex and there's no hard and fast way to diagnose, that at various times they've been informed he might not have long left yet he's come through.

Desperation to sell it for enough to clear the mortgage and the charge? It was on Escape to the country in 2011 (from memory) for a price of £435k.

Just read this morning's articles and caught up on the thread.

How on earth did they think they'd get away with telling Bill, in October 2021, that Moth had about 2 months to live, knowing full well that he's read Landlines, in which it was claimed that he had a normal brain scan in October 2021? Not to mention the fact that he's very clearly alive more than 4 years later.

And then to have the gall to do all the film promotion, knowing their story was about to unravel.

It beggars belief!

Sorry! There are so many people being lied to and scammed by Tim and Sally in this story that I get mixed up!

It's very interesting that Moth apparently has an illness that's hard to diagnose and very changeable.

Almost convenient for them.

I think there is sufficient proof to give to a judge. But if the money made from the books is now held by Four Hares Ltd co rather than the Walkers presumably the creditors can’t take the Walkers to court for £400k? Or can they?

So I guess you could argue that at one point (in 2010) they did plan to pay off the mortgage and the loan with the proceeds of the house sale.

Ironically if the sale had gone through, we probably wouldn't be discussing the Walkers and TSP today!

They seem to identify as hardworking farmer types, who are knowledgeable and capable of getting stuck in to working the land and turning it around with their labour and their expertise. This is what Bill Cole was buying into when he gave them the tenancy on such favourable terms.

But where is the evidence for this? We know that Tim was a gardener for the National Trust (which would be largely maintenance in a very neat, well-tended plot with a team of volunteers) and Sally was born on a farm. Other than that, he's a plasterer, she's a bookkeeper, they lived in a town, they go off on very long walks for months at a time, she writes books, deploying lots of nature references, but none of that actually points to any significant farming going on. She talks the talk about rewilding - nourishing and tending the abused, neglected land etc, but it seems like it's just words. Especially as they've actually owned land she dismisses as a 'bramble patch' in France for almost 20 years and are letting it slide further and further into genuine neglect.

It seems to me they scored themselves a cushy billet on this fabricated farmer identity and had to tell more tall stories and do another runner when it became apparent they were doing sod all on the land.

Is anyone else wondering whose charity this couple are living off now?!