Thread 17: 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 14 Observer items currently available on their online 'The real Salt Path' page: The real Salt Path | The Observer
More from The Observer:
‘Hope is extinguished’: CBD patients respond to Salt Path...
The real Salt Path | The Observer (The Slow Newscast)
Links to more Observer videos can be found in an early post of this new thread and here: Observer YouTube Channel: The Observer UK - YouTube
Working timeline and references: can be found in early posts of this new Thread 17.
Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement: Raynor Winn
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?^
Threads 2-11: Links all in the OP of Thread 12
Thread 12: 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?
Threads 13-14: Links in the OP of Thread 15
Thread 15:Thread 15: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet
Thread 16: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5395002-thread-16-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 are welcome. It would be helpful to get the background from at least some of the 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. Remember, even Hollywood rabbits attract the odd flea. 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 sixteen 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.

Yes, it really is Thread 17. I'm as in need of smelling salts as the next person.

We seek them here, we seek them there, mumsnetters seek them everywhere: just where are the elusive How not to Dal dy Dir and On Winter Hill?

#handwavium #appropriation

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

@aussiebornandbred's post led me to look up the origin of the word gobbledegook. In 1944, US congressman Maverick from Texas told his staff to use plain Rnglish. To describe pompous, empty language in official documents, he made up the word "gobbledegook" - based on the sound of pompous-looking, strutting turkeys. Sorry for stepping off the path for a moment.

Gosh, I don’t get very far into that video before I have to pause due to feeling uncomfortable. She seemed to stumble a bit when mentioning Moth as “her husband to be”. I paused after that. I’m so glad this wellness retreat idea has been shot down and I thank CH wholeheartedly for exposing this pair before they could exploit people further.

No apologies necessary, that’s very interesting and apt.

Crikey - she does talk a lot of nonsense. The “poor me” narrative comes out yet again where she wasn’t allowed music in the house whilst growing up, then saved by Mothman who introduced her to all sorts of music.
She’s clearly very excited about further collaborations with the band in the clip. I’m glad they dropped her like a hot potato when the controversy came out.
I thought the clip of her practising with the band at the end of the Rick Stein BBC episode was truly cringe though.

Thank you for that piece @BeguiledSilence what is she on about? @Aussiebornandbred is right, gobbledegook, so interesting @Peladon it's funny how we use these words without thinking about the origin. I too found the performance really cringe @Gingefringeand like @HatStickBoots I am glad that any plans they might have had for wellness retreats seem unlikely to happen.

@HatStickBoots

"I thank CH wholeheartedly for exposing this pair before they could exploit people further"

It's sometimes easy to forget in all this ludicrousness that they are scammers and we need good solid investigative journalists to expose such grifters.

I’ve never actually watched any footage of SW performing with the band — what does she actually do? I always have this vague image of her shaking a tambourine awkwardly and murmuring bad spoken word poetry about nature into a microphone over a musical backing, but surely if the band are a creditable folk band, there must be something in it for them, and she can’t have been that awful?

Here you go @Pissenlit . Her bit is at the beginning

Based on this and a couple of other bits I've seen I think she's atrocious and would if they were utterly scandal free. I can only imagine her name was a "draw" for people who wouldn't naturally attend folk gigs but had read the book(s)

@Uricon2 Are we just really biased because, to me, her part here seems even worse than the one you shared.

That video made me laugh out loud - thanks for sharing it!

No, @BeguiledSilence you're right, that is even worse. Talented singers and musicians and...Salray.

I do wonder what lack of insight would make her able to watch this and not get that she's detracting rather than adding to the performance. Maybe she (and Timmoth, probably) started believing their own publicity. That wouldn't surprise me.

Honestly don't think I'm biased because of the saga, although someone with more presence, acting/reciting ability, etc wouldn't be adding a lot with those snippets TBF.

So SW is claiming to have done the Coast to Coast and not met one single walker? Or no other long distance walker? Is it possible that she met lots of other walkers but assumed that none of them were bona fide long distancers (like wot she is)?

Because I live near to part of the Coast to Coast and there are people doing it, or at least parts of it, at all times of year and in all weathers. So I wonder if this is another example of her 'massaging of the truth' - in that she can claim that none of the people she met were 'long distance walkers'.

An Amazon, the most recent review of TSP book (18 September 2025) begins "I loved the raw honesty."

I had to conclude that she is the one who hasn't done it. By saying that she didn't meet another long-distance walker - then no one would expect to hear about anyone she encountered.

This is where I took that extract from:

https://getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/guides/raynor-winn-on-the-healing-power-of-walking/

I read through that and was struck by...

'here are so many mid-life issues in there, but for menopause, I would say that’s what should be prescribed. Women of 50 should be on prescription to go for a very long walk.'

So not only should anyone with a degenerative illness take to the road, all menopausal women have to do to feel better, apparently, is to go for a long walk....

I was pretty annoyed with her before, but now I'm even more annoyed. I might even go so far as to say that I am cross.

Not menopause too@Vroomfondleswaistcoat, do you remember when people used to say to annoying people, that they should take a very long walk off a very short pier :)

… and back further in the day they could be asked to walk the gang plank …😏

So they lost their home, Tim was diagnosed with a terminal illness, she started going through the menopause and they walked the SWCP - all at the same time.

“When we walked that path, I was just walking through the menopause, and it was the last thing on my mind, so I could write an entire book about distraction therapy for menopause,” says Raynor

Raynor Winn on the unexpected perks of walking The Salt Path | Woman & Home

It may have been posted before but the collab between RW and Gigspanner seems to have been the band’s idea. According to Gigspanner.com

"Last year I met an amazing group of musicians. Individually they have remarkable musical histories, but they’ve come together to form The Gigspanner Big Band. They had a suggestion, an idea of a collaboration. Their wonderful reimagining of traditional songs and tunes collected from the south west coast path, alongside some new words from me. So I did what you do when faced with a big decision - I thought about it for 5 minutes, then said yes, absolutely yes. How could I turn down the chance to work with names that light up the folk music world?"
Raynor Winn ~ Author of The Salt Path

I don't think there are enough eyerolls in the world for what I think of that @Vroomfondleswaistcoat . Active hate may kick in now!

An Amazon, the most recent review of TSP book (18 September 2025) begins "I loved the raw honesty." Ditto (thanks @Peladon)

If I'd of been them, I might have looked into her performing ability a bit more closely first.

So they were new words? I found them pretty meaningless salad.

It doesn't seem to occur to her that she just might have had an easy menopause! I've had a very symptom-free menopause, so I am here to tell you that all you need to do to get through menopause is work in the Co Op and watch a lot of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. What? It worked for me, so it's clearly going to work for you too....

“When we walked that path, I was just walking through the menopause, and it was the last thing on my mind, so I could write an entire book about distraction therapy for menopause,” says Raynor

😭 noooooooooooooo!!!

We need an "oh bloody Hell" emoji!

Buffy helps with lots of things but as a universal meno panacea...

Well, it's better than Salrays suggestion! 😂