Thread 9: 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 ...

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...

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

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?

Thread 8 www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5375023-thread-8-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 visitors who seem to have their own agenda and seek to derail. Avoid @'ing and quoting them as this will only encourage them back to the threads.

We have done amazingly well together - in the main that is, not mentioning any names but you know who you are! - for eight 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.

Jack Worthington is a character in The Importance of Being Earnest.

No - that's Jack Worthing.

Yes, I linked it above. It sounds to me like another instance of something being Everyone Else’s Fault.

And clearly another instance of a starting role for Smotyn the Possibly Fictional Sheep.

Did anyone notice that her one follower has the French flag? Related to the French property or Tim's author brother perhaps?

This suggests to me that they were indeed financially clueless. If anything it plays in to the storyline that rather being a couple of Machiavellian arch manipulators the truth about the Walkers is rather more prosaic.

• was SW a rather inept bookkeeper who filched money over the years and was pretty clueless about covering her tracks to the extent that she forged a cheque for £600 which resulted in the Hemmings' employees not getting paid? Was she a kleptomaniac who had no real idea of the cumulative damage she was causing to the Hemmings and their business ?
• Was the investment in the property business also fairly clueless with little understanding of the risks involved, the liquidity of the investment and the inability to demand immediate repayment (that's not the way equity investments work in private companies)
• Were SW and TW equally clueless when they embarked on the SWCP, with little idea of the physical challenge involved let alone what to do with a poo?
• Was remortgaging their Welsh farm (forever home) to buy a run down bramble infested property in deepest France, also financially clueless?
• Was SW equally clueless when she decided to submit her first MS of TSP to publishers on her daughter's suggestion, not realising the risks of "shifting the narrative" for creative purposes?
• As a first time author, was SW a small cog in the PRH marketing campaign, forced to go along with what her editor suggested would be commercially viable?

In my mind, whether SW is guilty as charged (by the Observer) or not really boils down to 2 things:

A. Did she knowingly fabricate the 2013 CBD diagnosis for literary effect? Did the 2013 diagnosis occur as described in TSP or did PRH suggest to SW that TSP needed spicing up and the narrative needed changing?

B. Did SW embezzle £64K from the Hemmings over a number of years, be completely conscious of what she was doing and subsequently have zero remorse for her actions? Why did she embezzle money from the Hemmings and why did she put her house in the market in Jan 2010 at £395K some 2 years before the creditors of the bankrupt property company took the Walkers to court in February 2012 soon after which a judge ruled they would have 12 months to find the funds and repay the creditors?

For me the French property is a red herring. It was uninhabitable and would have cost a significant amount to run (electricity,water and heating oil in winter) which the Walkers simply couldn't afford let alone pay any property taxes due, lawyer's fees etc etc)

So where do I stand? Well in view of SW's complete inability to admit any guilt or remorse for the alleged £64K embezzlement from the Hemmings and her complete inability to supply a copy of the 2013 CBD diagnosis documented in TSP, I'm afraid that she still has an awful lot of work to do to turn the jury of popular opinion back in her favour and thus at this point in time she if very much guilty as charged by the Observer.

The ball is very much in SW's court imo to prove her innocence.

Not seen R&J for years.
Did Jim always look like a younger Ronald McDonald?

@Catwith69lives (whom I have also been reading as ‘69 olives’, sorry!) — on your point about whether they were inept hikers and campers before starting the walk, I don’t really see how. The Wild Silence talks a lot about them hiking and climbing in the Peak District and in Scotland when they were younger.

On the point about whether Sally Walker was clueless about the potential effects of shifting the narrative when she submitted the MS to her agent/PRh. It’s very likely. No one thinks their first book is going to be either so successful or so scrutinised.

But worth pointing out that the basic scenario of ‘blamelesssly losing their home at the same time as Moth getting a terminal diagnosis’ is already in place from the email to the Big Issue before she wrote the article for it. No conniving agent or editor forced her to come up with that. It seemingly predates any agent or editor submission.

Has anyone else had the suspicion that the books were ghostwritten? Absolutely speculating here but I detected a whiff of ghostwriter abut them..with SW obviously providing the info. Just because of her daughter and Moth having no idea she could write ..seems very strange.

It is tempting to add a comment asking whether EH is the same person from the Walker-Winn-Wyn's Gangani website.

No, I think the nonsense about not believing mum could write is just the sort of platitude someone trots out. And I can believe they were shocked she wrote a best seller

I will not unsee that now. No alpaca for you for Christmas. I may reconsider for a CFOF.

I don’t think the writing is good enough tbh

bit I can imagine not was a group effort - which I don’t have a problem with

Not mentioned in the Ts&Cs on the website, hopefully the image attached okay. They don't seem very robust, considering they were giving away a bloomin' house!!

Totally agree they had no idea about it - if print copies would get them 70p-£1 profit and ebooks the full £5, then selling a mixture of 250,000 would net them enough to cover the mortgage and the owed money, I suppose.

It just seems insane to me to expect to sell that many copies of a self-published book from a first-time author, even with a "free" house!

ETA: will post better photos.

Photos of the terms and conditions in case anyone is interested.

Chloe Hadjimatheou and her researcher Alexi Mostrous had every opportunity in the Observer podcast “The Salt Path controversy: behind the scenes” to raise questions about the dates on the medical letters released by Raynor Winn (2015, 2019, 2025). They chose not to. Why was that? Perhaps it was because they knew they were on a sticky wicket. If it transpires that the CBS diagnosis existed prior to the start of the walk, the Observer’s reputation would be badly damaged if they had flogged this point. Hence sensibly they are treading a careful path. This contrasts to the discussion on this thread where the consensus appears to be guilty unless proven innocent.

Terribly sorry OP but I thought it was obvious! I was more of a Tots TV gal anyway.

I will happily relinquish one of my prized CFOF to you for an Alpaca though absolute bargain.

No, why would an unknown have a ghost writer? And to be fair my kids have no idea of my talents beyond provider of food and lifts.

Oh dear, guess that means I'm resigning before I was even appointed 😞

@Bruisername I don’t think the writing is good enough tbh

This interests me. I don't understand how the author won a Royal Society of Literature prize. It is one thing to say that readers felt connected to the story - but, surely it cannot be considered great literature. I have not read any of the Walker's books but have, since the controversy, seen many quotes/extracts.

This is why I posted, earlier re: it seems as if the Welsh book was the first novel?

My children are even a bit sceptical about my abilities in those areas

It would be interesting to know which one of them wrote the posts as Gangani on the Accidental Smallholder forum, pushing the house raffle/book and claiming to be a friend of the house owners.

Besides the whole concept being a complete joke, the wording of the T&Cs is so appallingly inept. It's not a FREE prize draw - you can only participate if you've bought a copy of the book, snipped off the end page and submitted it! You don't "play in" a prize draw,you participate in it.
"The prize is as described in the book and on the website and no entrant can select an alternative prize" Like what? The contents of Fort Knox?
"All entries including postal or online must be submitted, including your name address and daytime telephone number" Landline number? Mobile phone number?

To make any connection between the person(s) who concocted this joke of a website entry to sell a Welsh farmhouse and the author of a travelogue that sold 3mn copies, is described as the best travel book in the world and one of the best 100 books in the last 50 years (by the Sunday Times) would surely be beyond the realms of credibility....

Wow 9 threads!

No Saltiness, stick to the path 😆😆😆👏👏👏

No, we are a forgiving lot when we receive a mea culpa.

Mistakes were made and all that. 😁

Will you take on Rosie and Jim Correspondent as well as Oscar Wilde?

Agree it is not great literature

I think the writing was ok and poor in parts but given it was a non fiction book it made it more relatable perhaps? I don’t think every book has to be great literature so I don’t see that as a criticism of the book/writer

I'm assuming that it had to be marketed as non fiction because of that though and it wouldn’t have hit as hard as auto fiction

Do you think TimMoth wrote the website/snall holdings website posts? I haven't seen any interviews with him but he looks like the kind of person who would write "No bank loans were harmed in the making of this company!!!" or whatever it is and all those ridiculous biographies with all their exclamation marks.