Thread 14: 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's original exposé: The real Salt Path: how a blockbuster book and film were ...

The 13 Observer items currently available on their online 'The real Salt Path' page: The real Salt Path | The Observer

3 more from The Observer:

‘Hope is extinguished’: CBD patients respond to Salt Path...

The real Salt Path | The Observer (The Slow Newscast)

‘We thought: it can’t be the Salt Path couple – they’d ha...

Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement: Raynor Winn

Thread One ^www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5368194-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?^

Threads 2-11: Links all in the OP of Thread 12

Thread 12: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5384574-thread-12-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 13: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5386458-thread-13-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

New posters joining us in the genuine spirit of our civil discourse welcome. It would be helpful to read at least some of the Observer items above before posting. There are currently 16 interesting items on The Observer website and linked to above.

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 - from experience - this will only encourage them back to the threads. We have done amazingly well together for thirteen very interesting, very serious and very silly threads so far. I can't be here as much as I'd like so all help with keeping our discussion walking along in our usual reasonable and respectful fashion is very welcome.

Are we all becoming Hyperglycaemic from all the fudge?
Have shares in Cadbury's gone up?
Can we remain cheerful in the face of such shameless glumwashing?
Will I need to fill up with much petrol this thread for the drive-by scoldings?
Will our Chloe H get exclusive interviews with the disgruntled peregrine, tortoise and Hollywood rabbits?
What has our Simon A got to say about this, preferably in verse?

Keep to the path. No saltiness. May the fudge be with you.

https://omny.fm/shows/conversations-with-cornesy/conversations-with-cornesy-raynor-winn
Came across this podcast.It is from very late May 2025.
Raynor is INCREDIBLY unwilling to discuss the bad business deal that cost them their house despite the host’s persistence. Ditto the quite innocent question of what was the origin of Moth’s name. Could it be that the Observer journalist had been in touch with them about the article she was working on?
It starts just after 4 minutes in

“ you trust a friend sometimes in life and then you realise you shouldn’t have trusted them” she says, talking about the fictional “cooper”. Poor, innocent, trusting Sally. Wow, what a brass neck. No wonder the Hemmings were enraged.

The bit about Moth’s name starts at 14.00

5.54 is where she really gets her back up about being asked to explain the house loss

TW's shirt looks more appropriate for a swinger's party at Grant's farm than a hike on the PW!

What does she say? I've tried to find this bit, but 14.00 seems to be when she talks about her childhood.

Interesting comments about SW on one of the FB feeds.

"Lost everything" is a strange way to describe consequences of embezzlement

When you read some of the other social media posts about TSP, it seems there are still a lot of die hard fans who believe that the controversy is nothing more than a witch hunt and that "artistic license" (aka lies and deceit!) are completely justifiable if the book is enjoyable.

It makes me wonder whether PRH are quietly rubbing their hands with glee that there haven't been many more damaging allegations since the original Observer expose and hope that by keeping a low profile, they can go ahead with the planned release of OWH in Oct 2026 and enjoy decent sales from the die hard fans who will lap up anything she writes.

I think you’ve nailed it & this is what will likely happen.

Not completely justifiable actually

But, yes, move on!!

"You have to tell us his real name,"
"No I don't."
Mask slip

My earlier post about SW's education had a typo in it - thanks to those who have pointed it out! It should of course have read 'GCEs' (O levels) rather than GCSEs. I'm of similar age to SW but went to an academic sixth form where the great majority were doing A levels, so I was interested to hear from other posters what options might have been available at sixth form other than A levels. As SW seems to have worked in a court office I wonder if she did some sort of office skills course.

Apologies for my typo in my earlier post - yes, it should have read GCEs (O levels) not GCSEs!

Agreed. At least there are also a lot if people who do care about this deception and value truth.

When I was a pupil in the 70s and 80s most of the country had the comprehensive state system, but in my area (Slough) we had Grammar and Secondary Modern but no comprehensives. A few other areas had the same but pupils took the 11 plus exam to determine whether they would attend the grammar school. To add to the confusion, in Slough we had 12 plus so there was no first year at secondary school - we just went straight into the second year (no one outside the area could get their heads around this 😅). Approx 25% of pupils went to Grammar school and about half of those stayed on to do A levels.

This is obviously of no interest to most people but I felt that we’d exhausted the naked rambler interlude in response to the last DBS 😂

I think the die-hard fans would rather stand up for RayMoth than face the fact they've been conned.

And you could only really do both O levels or CSEs at Grammar school. At secondary modern your fate was sealed - it was CSEs or nowt. Pretty unfair to have your fate sealed at 12.

Thanks for sharing. This is so weird but not surprising. Just went to the bits you flagged. I love how when asked a question about losing the house she starts off by referring to what's in the film rather than the real life experience. Seems flustered when she's taken off the usual hackneyed script.

And why conceal Moth's real name?

She also points out the sleeping bags were tiny which I don't think is mentioned in the book (only paper thin). I'd like to know what the large, black sleeping bag-shaped thing is that's strapped to her rucksack in photos.

Phoebe Smith wrote this travel piece and spoke to SalRay. By coincidence SalRay had read Smith's book about walking the SWCP just before she and Timoth did their walk. Being well-read anyway, it looks like she did lots of reading round the subject before doing the series of walks.

Shouldn't we be calling the couple the WalkerWalkers?

www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/apr/19/salt-path-raynor-winn-film-cornwall-south-west-coast-path

I think that’s very apparent & might further point to them only doing stints. I think rather than a love letter to Moth she really researched. Then there are shades of ‘Canoe 2’ latter plotting IMO re ‘the script’ although not to same extent ofc.

@User14March

"shades of ‘Canoe 2’ latter plotting"

That's a good way of putting it. Some people find it hard to accept that there are scammers who forward plan their schemes well in advance but the Panama Canoeists are evidence of it. They were also in financial trouble like the WWs.

Interesting! You can really hear the anxiety when SW is pushed on the circumstances leading to the repossession. She has a standard script and is so uncomfortable at the thought of straying from it!

Zoopla description
www.zoopla.co.uk/property/uprn/10003913011/
(but you do have to create a log in to see the archive info). There is also a nice view on Google maps street view, just search haye farm cider Lostwithiel

Looks like Graham Cornes is a 'media personality' and yet he did a better job than some of these qualified journalists who failed to ask the important questions.