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

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?

Thread 4 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5370609-thread-4-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

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.

If you buy a house in Wales for about 200k, pre cost of living crisis, and you have a full time job, and your partner also works, you should have enough money to cover your expenses, I would have thought. So why all the stealing and borrowing? 64k! fleecing the garage, credit cards, dodgy cheques... Where was all the money going? I have a few ideas but maybe it would be nasty to say

@Bruisername You're right, the Observer site generally is struggling, slow loading and/or error messages on non-Salt Path pages too.

A lot of interest perhaps!!

Perhaps it's the weight of numbers wanting to read the story has crashed the site 😀

I have had to abandon the rest of mumsnet and my family to keep up with this thread over the past week and I'm finally here in real time.

They strike me as modern day Thenardier's. I am sure that there will be a history of events going back prior the the 2008 embezzlement.

I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but in every interview etc with Ros Hemmings she comes across as a decent and fair woman. The abuse of her and her husbands trust was despicable. Similar happened to a family member of mine and it affected them very deeply.

I hadn't read the book or seen the films, so didn't feel the betrayal that many who have felt. However, I had a quick look at her instagram and if I had followed her I'd be feeling totally duped, everything comes across as so wholesome.

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.

All in all they appear to be a dreadful pair who would spoil a better couple. But, that said, I hope that someone is looking after them, although self-inflicted, their mental health must be genuinely in tatters at the moment.

Yes we have no idea where in the world they have been for the last 2.5 years. Would electoral registers show that?

Also apparently you can see some of the redacted detail on the medical letters Sally published but I don’t know if the 2025 letter has an address or similar. And if it does no one should add it here as that is not from a source in the public domain like the electoral register is.

Thanks for the new thread. The latest chapter from the Observer is damning to say the least. I now understand why Bill Cole refused to speak to the Daily Mail.

Gaslight is apt in his case.

Bookmarking my place, just spent an hour or more catching up with all the discussion since yesterday!

Wasn't there a rather bizarre reason given for suddenly moving to/within Wales in the first place? (Something about a child escaping in proximity of a road.)

Given their now-established pattern of over-dramatisation, emotional manipulation, and midnight flits, I assume there's a trail of lies spun and havoc wreaked wherever they originally lived too.

Yes to pp who are wondering where they are living now, especially those who are owed money. ETA it's been over 2 years since they were living at the Cider farm.

He keeps an incredibly low profile for someone not drawn to drama. Avoiding interviewers & photographers for spurious reasons NB: ‘shopping for provisions’ leaving Raynor to cope alone.

Honestly, the type of people they are, they're probably enjoying the attention.

They'll role themselves as victims, they clearly have no morals at all.

Chloe Hadjimatheou and the team on this story have certainly done their bit to attract interest toward the new Observer, be a shame if the servers couldn't keep up!

I have a hunch they at least still live in a house in the countryside based on an image I've seen associated with their son. It's among few other picturesque houses and rolling hills and fields. Looks bucolic. Maybe they rent or bought it?

I’m surprised the Observer hasn’t pointed out that Moth wasn’t given a tentative diagnosis of a strange form of CBD until 2015.

If his symptoms are very mild, perhaps they think journalists would be questioning them more about the illness and as we seem to be seeing, it doesn’t bear close scrutiny if he is telling people he has only months to live when that’s simply not the case.

I know this has been mentioned, apologies, I'm struggling to keep up!

So they finished their supposed walk for Landlines in late summer (?) 2021.

In October 2021 Tim told Bill Cole he had been given two months to live.

That gave them a year till the book publication to find another generous person to leech off. As well as giving thm an excuse as to why they were doing F all on the farm.

Their behaviour here is a bit peculiar. If you knew what you'd told Bill was very different to what you'd said in the book, then surely you would have left before the book came out and he could read it?

Maybe they weren't expecting Bill to read Landlines as quickly as he did, or even at all.

The gap between him texting Sally and her answering was no doubt time spent arranging a new place to live.

Why do multi-millionaires need to continue to grift? They’ve had the ‘Izzy’ easy ‘Winn’. At what price however, this reads as a morality/cautionary tale.

I recall from TSP that RW claimed the house was their livelihood as well as their home. There was never any mention (from memory) of them having any sort of normal jobs.

I'm finding this whole 'reveal' so interesting - having read TSP (and recently seen the film, although not read any of her other books) something did always seem a bit off. I always felt as though their story about the financial ruin and losing the house was something more than described, as it just didn't make sense, and there was zero ownership of the situation from their point of view.

Having been through my own mid life "comeuppances", the real OPPORTUNITY of them is that they provide us the chance to own our part in how our life has turned out, take stock and grow as a person. I didn't get any sense from their journey that they did any growing at all - there was no ownership about what decisions in their life had brought them to this crisis point of being in their 50s and supposedly homeless and penniless.

Coming out of the film, and it having been many years since reading TSP, it was noticeable that the story is focused entirely on them. None of the other characters have any flesh to them. Everyone else is totally incidental, and the female walker they encounter who joins them at one point late on, but then just randomly wanders off, just didn't work in film. There's a vaguely emotional point at the end, and then the credits roll... although the narrative takes you on a journey, it really is just a geographical one from A to B, and not one of their growth as people.

So shocking what’s revealed today about the cider farm as that’s relatively ‘recent’ compared to life ‘before’ the salt path - if there was any sense of transformation/making amends/starting a new chapter etc.

It’s also stark that not ONE friend/relative/colleague/person seems to have come forth in defence to say they’re such lovely people? You would have thought many would speak up, based on the narrative up until last Sunday…

Thanks @AldoGordo and @FurryHappyKittens so many walks that may or may not have happened make it hard to keep up with sometimes.

Using the drama triangle posted earlier by @SomethingFun

In the next book (which I think will now be quietly pulped), I wouldn't have been surprised to read that Bill Cole turned from benefactor to enemy somehow.

Potential synopisis: After Tim and Sally explain that Tim is very ill, Bill then cuts their tenancy short, and wonderful people that they are, they don't want to make a fuss, so instead of fighting it (does Tim have the strength mental or physical to do so?) they leave. Obviously they are devestated that such a close friend, as they thought, would treat them in this cruel way.

So, they are still the victims and Bill has turned from Rescuer to Persecutor.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpman_drama_triangle#/media/File%3AKarpman_Triangle.png

Completely fascinated by this whole story and loving these threads which I’ve been pouring over all week.
question? Having been browsing SW’s instagram I see they had a crowdfunder for the Saltlines journal on Kickstarter which they needed to raise £12000 to produce. In 2025 as far as I can tell so the walkers will have had all the money from her massive book sales plus some money from the impending film. So why are they grifting to raise money instead of simply funding and selling it? £12k would be peanuts for them.

Yes, where are "Dave" and "Julie"?

Who always came across as unpeasant in the books.