Thread 8: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film?

[DisappointedReader]

Well, this has turned out to be slightly longer than the dozen or so replies I expected when I started the first thread!

The Observer The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

2nd Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-whats-in-the-book-and-what-the-observer-has-found

3rd Observer
https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-salt-path-the-truth-behind-the-blockbuster-book-video

4th Observer
‘I felt I was being gaslit’ – the landlord who helped Ray...

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Thread 6
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husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 7
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Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement Raynor Winn

New posters welcome. It would be helpful to read at least the four Observer items above before posting.

To all - Please be extremely cautious when it comes to naming or implicating people and addresses not in the public eye or with no direct connection to the story, and around the understandable health speculations, especially where details are unclear or still emerging. Please do not engage with possible visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail.

We have done amazingly well together - in the main that is, not mentioning any names but you know who you are! - for seven threads so far. I can't be on the threads as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion ticking along in a healthy and civil fashion is very welcome.

No saltiness. Keep to the path. Thank you.

Precisely. You stated the book 'contains no snake oil' as fact, then when someone disagreed this became 'it's just my view of the book'. Disingenuous.

The Observer journalist is slippery (bit like a damp squid/squib) and has a poor track record. I’d prefer not to believe everything she says.

I am getting a fishy whiff of damp squid in my nostrils.

I am reminded of the 'envious lady' post about Chloe Hadjimatheou, I think on the first thread.

I am unaware of any human kindness coming from Raynor Winn/Sally Walker, and potentially Moth Winn/Timothy Walker towards:

• Her former employer when taking £64,000, or about £109,000 in today's money, from him and in breach of the trust he had placed in her. He has been described as being never the same again and dying of cancer. He is not here to defend himself from the aspersions in RW's statement.
• The employees of that company who would not have been paid.
• The relative of Moth/Timothy when not paying the money back he had loaned to the Walker-Winns to prevent Raynor/Sally from being charged and a potential prison sentence. He is no longer here to defend himself.
• The other people, businesses and tax collectors owed money over the years.
• The owners and employees of the small businesses of campsites, shops and cafés they describe stealing from or taking advantage of in TSP.
• The many people, some of whom had significantly helped the Walker-Winns, she describes in her writing and interviews in disparaging terms.
• The homeless charity Crisis who were to be charged a fee by Raynor/Sally for an appearance.
• The people who parted with hard earned money to buy books they had been sold as true stories.
• In particular, the people with serious disabilities and illnesses, especially degenerative and terminal neurological conditions, and their carers and loved ones, who feel they have been misled and made to feel guilty because they cannot 'walk it off'.
• The people with disabilities who may face increased suspicion and discrimination in an already too hostile world, as a result of the above.

Just a few quick examples from memory.

I am also unaware of any human kindness coming from the somewhat ironically-named poster towards the people I list above, towards Martin Hemmings' widow Ros, towards others who have come forward like Bill Cole and his wife who had breast cancer at the time they crossed paths with the Walker-Winns, towards Chloe Hadjimatheou who is an experienced and respected investigative reporter and a human being, or towards the hundreds of posters on these threads who just want to discuss and read about this hot topic as countless others are also doing elsewhere.

In the spirit of this thread, if any posts had crossed a line then they would have been deleted as in breach of our Talk Guidelines here on Mumsnet. Indeed only a handful of posts have needed be deleted out of over 7200 posts and 8 threads. Posters have worked together to keep this a healthy and reasonable debate.

Goodness me, an enormous amount of tolerance has even been shown to this poster, despite the rather patronising tone and drive by scolding.

I think that’s fair enough. It did just strike me, from that rather lovely black and white photo, thst the Paddy Dillon guidebook looked in remarkably good mock after being carried around in a rucksack (or Moth’s combats’ pocket, which is where it starts out when the first pack), in all kinds of weather. My brother used PD’s guide to the Wicklow Way, which is only 80 miles, but which he also walked in crap weather, and it’s a very sorry-looking object even long after drying out! Also, whoever’s writing that is in the annotations looks very clear and beautiful for something presumably at least partly scrawled while on the path.

But maybe they just chose a particularly nice-looking page to photograph. Or maybe the actual copy is long gone, and this was a new one jist for the photo.

I think you should take some credit for the general civility on the threads, too, @DisappointedReader!

@Humankindness The Observer is owned by Tortoise Media. You can read more about them here - https://observer.co.uk/news/about-us/article/tortoise-media. They employ very experienced journalists who specialise in investigative journalism, so they aren’t after a ‘quick scoop’ as you mention.

Also, how is Chloe Hadjimatheou ‘discredited’?

Agreed!

@DisappointedReader Goodness me, an enormous amount of tolerance has even been shown to this poster, despite the rather patronising tone and drive by scolding.

Drive by scolding 😂😂 .

The fact that they were only going to make one post and then seemingly couldn't tear themselves away suggests that actually they quite liked hanging out with us 😇.

Seconded!

I am having a nice life, thanks, and I am kind. What I'm not is gullible. Your guilt trips and lectures make no impact on me. I work hard and earn my money honestly. I don't think RW can say the same and I won't be patronised out of discussing it. Her actions have resulted in more 'devastating impacts' than anything posters here are likely to manage. That doesn't make her 'the devil personified' and people haven't said she is. But you are tilting at windmills.

I’ve just finished the book, didn’t want to look at these threads till now. I’m not surprised really, she came across as annoying, over the top and braggy. Some of the writing is very beautiful, most of the interactions were made up I thought. Walking into an Army exercise on the beach and being given a lift in their vehicle seems like childish fantasy. You’d be dead if you went through what they supposedly did, surviving on a piece of fudge for days and days while terminally ill, sleeping in a wet tent teetering in a cliff edge. Overall I did enjoy the book as a sort of work of fantasy-fiction. I’m happy I didn’t pay for it as the author is herself a thief.

Very much so!

I can't take any credit at all for the excellent drive by scolding! It was so apt that I blatantly plagiarised it from a pp. I think I might even borrow it in real life. Unfortunately my DC might even identify with it.

Can’t help but think there’s a very strong possibility that Sally is indeed a mumsnetter- plenty on here who like a powder blue aga, places in France, Cornwall etc - if Sally is reading or even commenting ( and there are some very odd defensive posts ) you might be better served not issuing strange rebuttals that actually create more questions than answers. Get some professional advice on this.

My thoughts exactly,the name was a giveaway lol

You're digging yourself an even bigger hole

It seems to me that there's no way, given that she appeared so suddenly, regurgitated Raynor Winn's website non-rebuttal, refused to venture beyond what that non-rebuttal said, refused to genuinely engage with anyone's efforts to engage with her, was rude about everyone here and then flounced out again (and seemed to take all this very personally) that 'Humankindness' wasn't some kind of representative. Her agents, maybe, who still haven't made any public statement at all about this? But of course we'll never know. It's just worth pointing out, when people zoom in like that and refer to Winn's 'rebuttal', not only that it didn't actually rebut anything very much at all, but that the Observer did very effectively rebut her non-rebuttal last Sunday. That link's here again. https://observer.co.uk/culture/books/article/fact-and-fiction-raynor-winn-wont-talk-to-us-but-heres-what-she-said-about-our-story

In an interview from 2020, SW says that the notes in the margin of Paddy Dillon's guide to the SWCP are in pencil and are Moth's

“The Salt Path had its own narrative arc, and I just needed to retrace it. I had Paddy Dillon’s guide to the South West coast path, with Moth’s pencilled notes in the margin, and everything else just followed."

The Wild Silence » Articles - Marshwood Vale Magazine

BBC news today www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c80p2pzgpmgo

If the TSP was based on Moth's pencilled notes in the margin of the SWCP guidebook by Paddy Dillon, then judging by the handwriting of the notes in the margin of the SWCP guide shown and the fairly pristine state of the guidebook, my best guess is that the guidebook shown in the photo is not the original but a second one that was subsequently written up by SW as an "aide de memoir".

The handwriting of the comments shown in the photo seems to match SW's and they don't look as though they have been written in pencil.

Sorry, that link doesnt come with a preview for some reason- screenshot attached

The Salt Path: 'Trusting Raynor Winn was our biggest mistake'

And for those who may worry I would just trust the Hemmings /the journalist at face value...

I really don't.

Two of the things I look at when looking at competing versions of events are

• level of detail being given
• consistency of the story being told

"It was a very busy time. Mistakes were made"
Vs
Detailed, with numbers, dates, explanations

Yesterday’s Telegraph had a piece on South West Coast Path Association charity considering dropping RW as their ambassador. It’s behind a paywall so I’ve not read it myself but here’s the link in case others can access it https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/07/16/coastal-charity-may-cut-ties-salt-path-author-winn-swcpa-uk/

Also, if mistakes were being made which almost made me hemmings bankrupt - wouldn’t your natural reaction be to fix things as much as possible?

I note that it’s mentioned that he wasn’t very good at billing people though and in the interests of fairness that would have contributed to problems due to less coming in (and then more going out unexpectedly would lead to a crunch). If SW had any bookkeeping skills she should have realised she was going to get caught