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

1000 replies

DisappointedReader · 16/07/2025 23:41

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 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 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

Thread 6
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5372494-thread-6-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-
husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 7
www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5373425-thread-7-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

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.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
38
Uricon2 · 17/07/2025 15:38

Strangely I'm about as ashamed of myself as Raynor Winn appears to be about embezzling £64K from her employer, ie., not at all and no pompous prounouncements are going to change that.

FlyAgaricc · 17/07/2025 15:39

@User14March "Ah but there was something in ‘Justice’ & possibly their undoing via dogged ‘Tortoise’. ;)" hehe true!

Bruisername · 17/07/2025 15:40

What an odd post - the problem with her rebuttal is that it’s flimsy and doesn’t actually debunk anything in the article.

if you put yourself in the public domain to make money then I’m afraid you have to be ready to accept scrutiny

she would have avoided all of this if she had insisted on the book being published as ‘inspired by true events’ or under auto fiction - but the unflinchingly honest tagline has set her up

FlyAgaricc · 17/07/2025 15:44

@Catwith69lives that is some serious sleuthing

candycane222 · 17/07/2025 15:49

Iwrotesomething · 17/07/2025 14:13

@Krautie The Salt Ways in England mostly lead from Droitwich, which has brine springs. But there must have been others here too. (I have a peculiar interest - for feminist reasons - in the early history of salt and would love to go and see the ancient salt workings in Germany...)

Then you absolutely must go to Les Fontaines Sales near Vezelay in Burgundy (if you haven't been already). Called in on the off chance on a day out (we found Vezelay detained us less long than expected) and were BLOWN AWAY!!!!

User14March · 17/07/2025 15:49

WiddlinDiddlin · 17/07/2025 15:36

1 - I would not. But then I would not publicise a dodgily edited, romanticised, sanitised version of my life for cash, under the guise of 'unflinching honesty', misleading people into thinking stupidly long walks without proper equipment, nutrition or medication are in any way a treatment for serious neurological disease.

2 - I'd be pretty peed off that my magical ability to deflect and redirect and re-write history was over.

3 - I haven't seen anyone here actively celebrating. Just aggrieved at being mislead perhaps, and also fascinated at the psychology and mindset that leads to human behaviour like this.

4 - I know I am, I can't speak for everyone on the thread of course.

I think number 1 is what people are particularly up in arms about. I also really felt for the Hemmings family, if untrue presumably Raymoth can act, ditto any untruths in Observer articles. Theft & large embezzlement not in spirit & hard to stomach.

NB: it’s ‘damp squib’ as am sure you know, but I like PP’s version better, more fitting somehow given theme.

No one wishes Ray or Moth ill, I certainly don’t.

Aspanielstolemysanity · 17/07/2025 15:50

@Humankindness

I think you mean squib?

My interest stems from the fact this was "unflinchingly honest" and yet fed into a dangerous myth that natural rather than medical remedies can cure terminal illness. So no different from the Belle Gibson myth.

I take no delight in anyone's downfall but I do want to see the publishing industry properly scrutinised and made to answer questions about what they put in the "non fiction" box.

candycane222 · 17/07/2025 15:51

Salés not sales! They looked very clean! (if you don't mind frogs...)(no not that sort, actual grenouillle frogs)

Aspanielstolemysanity · 17/07/2025 15:51

Humankindness · 17/07/2025 15:31

Like another contributor to thread 8, this is likely to be my only post.

The amount of glee, enjoyment and passion that is being expressed in these 8 threads at the expense of Raynor Winn and her other half is incredibly distasteful. I would urge everyone posting here to consider the following:

  1. would you enjoy having every part of your life forensically picked over?
  2. how would you feel if you had responded to many unsubstantiated allegations about you and many folks - including a large number on here - didn't bother to listen?
  3. how would you feel if people actively celebrated what they believed to be your downfall?
  4. are you applying the same rigorous criteria regarding accuracy /lack of embellishment to both the journalist and the author?

The second Observer article was a damp squid, 100% based on heresay. Other newspapers have lazily jumped on the bandwagon and produced a lot of drivel. To those of you who are eagerly waiting for the “next instalment” from the Observer, shame on you. This is sadly a very good example of virtual shaming and bullying. You should be ashamed of yourselves,

Also, presumably if the second article is incorrect and libellous then Raynor will take any necessary legal action

WellPossibly · 17/07/2025 15:52

Humankindness · 17/07/2025 15:31

Like another contributor to thread 8, this is likely to be my only post.

The amount of glee, enjoyment and passion that is being expressed in these 8 threads at the expense of Raynor Winn and her other half is incredibly distasteful. I would urge everyone posting here to consider the following:

  1. would you enjoy having every part of your life forensically picked over?
  2. how would you feel if you had responded to many unsubstantiated allegations about you and many folks - including a large number on here - didn't bother to listen?
  3. how would you feel if people actively celebrated what they believed to be your downfall?
  4. are you applying the same rigorous criteria regarding accuracy /lack of embellishment to both the journalist and the author?

The second Observer article was a damp squid, 100% based on heresay. Other newspapers have lazily jumped on the bandwagon and produced a lot of drivel. To those of you who are eagerly waiting for the “next instalment” from the Observer, shame on you. This is sadly a very good example of virtual shaming and bullying. You should be ashamed of yourselves,

I haven't the remotest interest in 'bringing the Walkers to justice' or charging around Europe with a lynch mob clutching receipts and pitchforks, and insisting on the Walkers proving they have recompensated everyone to whom they owe money, from the man with the garage to the owner of the shop where Sally pocketed the fudge bars.

I don't think Sally is a sociopath because she grew up killing rabbits for the pot. It's clear Tim does have some form of degenerative illness, but it seems likely to me that they retrofitted the timeline of the diagnosis, just as they concealed the real reason they lost their house, and that the likely reality is that they simply walked the SWCP as a cheap holiday rather than as a desperate measure, conceived of in despair under a terminal diagnosis when the bailiffs were banging on the door.

I am simply interested in how people fictionalise themselves when life-writing, and, finding that tissue of half-truths, rearranged timelines and poetic licence unexpectedly successful, presumably find themselves trapped by it, and/or may actually come to believe it themselves, as they do publicity, write sequels, and promote a film adaptation.

I'm actually not without sympathy for them, because I think everyone has rearranged the narrative of their own life at some point, in little ways or large, if only in conversation. It can be self-protective. This just got played out on a grandiose level. What I'd like to know more about is at what point the half-truths and poetic rearrangements crept in, and when they hardened, and how they talk about it all between the two of them, when they're alone.

No one should be doorstepping them with pitchforks. Obviously.

User14March · 17/07/2025 15:56

@WellPossibly very good points. If any retrofitting I do wonder if any encouragement to do so by publishers as others have said. Maybe, if so, not all on Ray and Moth.

Fandango52 · 17/07/2025 15:56

Humankindness · 17/07/2025 15:31

Like another contributor to thread 8, this is likely to be my only post.

The amount of glee, enjoyment and passion that is being expressed in these 8 threads at the expense of Raynor Winn and her other half is incredibly distasteful. I would urge everyone posting here to consider the following:

  1. would you enjoy having every part of your life forensically picked over?
  2. how would you feel if you had responded to many unsubstantiated allegations about you and many folks - including a large number on here - didn't bother to listen?
  3. how would you feel if people actively celebrated what they believed to be your downfall?
  4. are you applying the same rigorous criteria regarding accuracy /lack of embellishment to both the journalist and the author?

The second Observer article was a damp squid, 100% based on heresay. Other newspapers have lazily jumped on the bandwagon and produced a lot of drivel. To those of you who are eagerly waiting for the “next instalment” from the Observer, shame on you. This is sadly a very good example of virtual shaming and bullying. You should be ashamed of yourselves,

Not the point, but it’s ’damp squib’, not ‘damp squid’. I’m a pedant - sorry.

Aspanielstolemysanity · 17/07/2025 15:58

Fandango52 · 17/07/2025 15:56

Not the point, but it’s ’damp squib’, not ‘damp squid’. I’m a pedant - sorry.

@Humankindness it's also hearsay not heresay (or heresy for that matter)

PrettyDamnCosmic · 17/07/2025 16:15

Fandango52 · 17/07/2025 15:56

Not the point, but it’s ’damp squib’, not ‘damp squid’. I’m a pedant - sorry.

A squid is normally damp.

PullTheBricksDown · 17/07/2025 16:20

Humankindness · 17/07/2025 15:31

Like another contributor to thread 8, this is likely to be my only post.

The amount of glee, enjoyment and passion that is being expressed in these 8 threads at the expense of Raynor Winn and her other half is incredibly distasteful. I would urge everyone posting here to consider the following:

  1. would you enjoy having every part of your life forensically picked over?
  2. how would you feel if you had responded to many unsubstantiated allegations about you and many folks - including a large number on here - didn't bother to listen?
  3. how would you feel if people actively celebrated what they believed to be your downfall?
  4. are you applying the same rigorous criteria regarding accuracy /lack of embellishment to both the journalist and the author?

The second Observer article was a damp squid, 100% based on heresay. Other newspapers have lazily jumped on the bandwagon and produced a lot of drivel. To those of you who are eagerly waiting for the “next instalment” from the Observer, shame on you. This is sadly a very good example of virtual shaming and bullying. You should be ashamed of yourselves,

This is sadly a very good example of virtual shaming and bullying. You should be ashamed of yourselves

Back at you babes! What exactly are you intending with this drive by scolding?

Some alternative questions to ask:

  • How many of us here have embezzled from a former employer?
  • How many of us have a trail of people who say we owe them money we haven't paid back?
-How many of us have lied about our health to make money?
  • How many of us have made others feel bad for not miraculously recovering from serious illnesses by going for a long walk?

I could go on. But I'm not the one who should be feeling guilty here.

Merrymouse · 17/07/2025 16:27

Humankindness · 17/07/2025 15:31

Like another contributor to thread 8, this is likely to be my only post.

The amount of glee, enjoyment and passion that is being expressed in these 8 threads at the expense of Raynor Winn and her other half is incredibly distasteful. I would urge everyone posting here to consider the following:

  1. would you enjoy having every part of your life forensically picked over?
  2. how would you feel if you had responded to many unsubstantiated allegations about you and many folks - including a large number on here - didn't bother to listen?
  3. how would you feel if people actively celebrated what they believed to be your downfall?
  4. are you applying the same rigorous criteria regarding accuracy /lack of embellishment to both the journalist and the author?

The second Observer article was a damp squid, 100% based on heresay. Other newspapers have lazily jumped on the bandwagon and produced a lot of drivel. To those of you who are eagerly waiting for the “next instalment” from the Observer, shame on you. This is sadly a very good example of virtual shaming and bullying. You should be ashamed of yourselves,

would you enjoy having every part of your life forensically picked over?

No, which is why I have not sold a version of my life to a film company.

how would you feel if you had responded to many unsubstantiated allegations about you and many folks - including a large number on here - didn't bother to listen?

From what I can see any Observer allegations have been substantiated by the response.

how would you feel if people actively celebrated what they believed to be your downfall?

Not celebrating. A number of claims in the book were misleading and irresponsible. Whether that is the fault of the Walker/Winns or the publishers is a fair question, but both have profited.

are you applying the same rigorous criteria regarding accuracy /lack of embellishment to both the journalist and the author?

Yes.

Bruisername · 17/07/2025 16:30

But the journalist and the author aren’t on an equal footing here

the author sent a book in that she claimed to be the truth and the publisher did no fact checking

the journalist has done some research and no doubt run it past legal to ensure it holds up

the second article is ‘his word against theirs’ but it is framed as his account so people will read it with that in mind

Uricon2 · 17/07/2025 16:35

They also have the option of suing if what has been written about them is inaccurate. I would have made it very publically clear that I was doing so instead of writing an "essay" that really clarified nothing. These are not penniless walkers (in either sense) any more, they have money and they have lawyers.

What did Elton John once say " You can call me (list of nasty homophobic slurs) I don't care, but you mustn't tell lies about me."

Iwrotesomething · 17/07/2025 16:36

@Krautie @candycane222 Right, I have the beginnings of a salt tour here. I would also add the Hallstatt salt mine in Austria to the list.

Feminism and salt: I got irritated because lots of archaeologists said that "salt didn't matter" in the Neolithic. Which isn't the case. Then as now, preserving food was essential if you are going to survive the winter and so it would have been vital for survival. (FWIW lots of Iron Age pots show the remains of dairy and cabbage, which I think relates to sauerkraut and cheese - storage for the winter).
But they don't think it's important because - just as men do the barbecues now - archaeologists are only interested in the kind of feasting which involved big hunks of meat outside the house. Men cooking, not preservation, which is traditionally the preserve (arf) of women. So it is not important, so we don't nee to think about salt. But we do!

The real index of this intrinsic sexism is hazelnuts which are native to the UK and whose shells are found in gigantic quantities on huge numbers of prehistoric sites, like mound size dumps. But until a few years ago, no one even looked at them, even though they were probably a key part of surviving the winter as a preservable energy source before farming (You will not be surprised to know that the archaeologist now looking at them is a woman). In Wiltshire, even in the early 20th century, children had a day off school in September for nutting, because it was still an important food group.

You did ask...

Edited for typo

Redheadedstepchild · 17/07/2025 16:46

I wonder if, "Salt Path" or, "Saltpath" might become a verb?

As in, to saltpath sombody or something?

Suggestions for usage:

"Are you saying that she made it up?"
"Not exactly, but she really did saltpath it!"

Or,

"Questions are being asked today if recent NHS figures were saltpathed by the government."

Or even,

"I am absolutely fed up of your saltpathing!"

It could be the Merriam-Webster word of the year for 2025.

People with a better grasp of English than me could perhaps come up with the dictionary definition of the verb, "to saltpath."
It's not gaslighting, it's not exaggerating, it's saltpathing. It has a nuance all of its own.

Richard Osman will be casually dropping it into high brow conversation by Christmas. Bet you all a finger of fudge.

Bruisername · 17/07/2025 16:47

I don’t understand the point of a drive by scolding (as a pp put it so brilliantly!)

you can either substantiate what you are saying or not

User14March · 17/07/2025 16:55

Bruisername · 17/07/2025 16:47

I don’t understand the point of a drive by scolding (as a pp put it so brilliantly!)

you can either substantiate what you are saying or not

I think a key problem is Raynor thinks she’s issued a watertight, robust rebuttal & that’s not been universally accepted.

VerySwettyBetty · 17/07/2025 16:58

I’ve been following all of these threads obsessivley and decided yesterday to give TSP another read. Not sure with what in mind, exactly, maybe I was feeling a little masochistic. I was a big fan on the first read, and I’m massively cringing at how badly written it seems now.

The thing I’ve noticed most this time round, in light of all of the revelations and accusations - and apologies if this is just a repeat of what others have said, I have read ALL of the posts 😜 but am starting to lose track! - is how very little Salray writes about the reality of Timoth’s illness or the actual experience of walking. I’m about halfway through. At the beginning there’s mention of shoulder pain, and of a doctor who “raised questions about a slight tremor in his hand and numbness in his face”, and that Parkinson’s had been ruled out. I can’t remember whether this will come up again but so far there’s no other mention of these symptoms again. There’s just been the painful shoulder, which eases up with the hardcore physio of a long distance walk and the effects of pregabalin withdrawal.

All of the catastrophising and horrific CBD symptoms are part of Salray’s imaginative ruminations. Even the description of the doctor suggesting a potential CBD diagnosis (of which he “can’t be certain”) is really interestingly worded - “he then carried on trying to explain a rare degenerative brain disease that would take the beautiful man I’d loved…destroy his body…dementia…unable to swallow…choking to death…”. First reading gives the impression that the doc has spelled
our this grim prognosis to Timoth and is preparing them for the worst, setting me as a reader up nicely for a having my heart strings yanked. Reading it again now and I notice that it’s all Salray’s imaginings, the doc doesn’t actually say any of that at all. The whole book is like this.

I’m pretry sure PP have mentioned this too but it’s also really striking how little description there is of the experience of the wall itself. Quite literally in places ‘blue,green, blue, green, up, down’. Interspersed with incredibly cliched, mostly unbelievable interactions with other humans. And dogs.

Humankindness · 17/07/2025 16:59

What did I want out of it? For some contributors to this thread to stand back and consider whether it might be possible to discuss these issues with a little more objectivity, kindness and empathy.

  1. did Raynor Winn embezzle money from an estate agent? Or was she accused of doing so? They are different things. Where is the proof either way? Many contributors on here have jumped to a quick conclusion based only on who they prefer to believe.
  2. a non-disclosure agreement was signed by the estate agent, meaning both parties agreed to it and both were protected. Why is his widow disrespecting this? What does that say about her character? We’ll probably never know what happened here. But either way it’s not relevant to the story of the walk.
  3. what evidence does anyone have that the Winn’s made up the story about investing in Cooper’s business? If they did lose money in this way, the start of the book is correct. The observer has not been able to refute this.
  4. where is the hard evidence that any money is still owed? Can the garage owner produce evidence? If not, this is hearsay. Is the anonymous person conveniently cited by the Observer real? Where is the hard evidence? How can 400k still be owed when the house was sold and proceeds used to pay the debt? And what relevance does any of this have to the Salt Path journey?

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.

Ps. I’d prefer not to be called “babes” in what is clearly a mocking tone.

Aspanielstolemysanity · 17/07/2025 17:02

@Humankindness

Got a break now so will answer your questions properly, I do hope it isn't just a drive by scolding and you will come back and let us know more about your thoughts around the theft, for instance

1. would you enjoy having every part of your life forensically picked over?
Hmm. I wouldn't ever put myself in the public eye ... But if I were, I tend to be honest to a fault if anything so I can't imagine a scenario where huge lies would be uncovered. And I wouldn't ever steal anything but if (suspending disbelief here) I did I would probably consider a social media frenzy getting off lightly compared to the custodial sentence I deserved.

2. how would you feel if you had responded to many unsubstantiated allegations about you and many folks - including a large number on here - didn't bother to listen?

The response was as riddled with holes as the original book. I might have regretted not getting decent PR advice before responding I guess.

  1. how would you feel if people actively celebrated what they believed to be your downfall?

I am not sure that's whats going on here. I think there is a lot of concern that real harm was done by a book that misrepresented so much

4.are you applying the same rigorous criteria regarding accuracy /lack of embellishment to both the journalist and the author?

Yes. But the journalist was quite careful to fact check and caveat her words. The author is yet to respond in a way that adds anything that makes sense . "Mistakes were made" is a pretty hazy rebuttal to an accusation of theft, for instance. A rebuttal to me would be "I never took a penny and the whole thing was invented". But we know that can't be said because a huge amount of money was paid back in exchange for an NDA

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