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.

Or Benny Hill.

” Raynor” and “Moth” are about as real as “Anna and Clara” from Sostrene Grene, complete with imagined likes/dislikes, personalities, interests, back stories and so on. A brand sure enough.

Another hideous and contrived performance. I really don’t know why SW felt she could do
this without any voice coaching.

"Sostrene Grene" made me think of "moya sestra" in the old film Cat People,. But, whilst SW has an alter ego, I doubt she will turn into a giant cat and actually eat Moth, even when he's dunking his Mars bar.

…. But they lived on the beautiful Lleyn Peninsula for a long time - surrounded by a stunning coastline, mountains and countryside - for much longer than a few months of their walk.
Now forgotten in the midst of their embezzlement and trail of debts. I’d also like to know which hotel she worked at in Abersoch and if she left under a cloud - she was purportedly made redundant before securing her job with MH.

I can’t remember which thread this was last mentioned in but apparently that hotel ended up going into liquidation.

I’m well aware they lived on the Llyn peninsula. I’m merely saying SW spent the first 30 years of her life about as far inland as possible — and in fact, I don’t think there’s a single mention of the sea in any of the lengthy passages of TSP where SW describes their Welsh home. I suppose she hadn’t yet been ‘salted’.

The new book - due to be published October 2026
Wainwright's Coast to Coast was published in 1973 - when she was 10. So it is another blatant lie (just a different one!). I have picked up on this before but have been looking at the very little there is about OWH again.
It is this pumping up the huge connection the couple have, how extra tragic it is that they can't do it together, burying all these things in the winter narrative.

Projects - due for Spring 2026
In conversation with Raynor Winn on 11 June. She is very animated (obviously a lot more unguarded and excited) about another new project with the band in the spring, in April.
So maybe this is what we are being teased that is to come, as well? Or, is the music, and Sal's writings, the 'creative' part of the creative wellness retreats?

So where are we at with this whole deceit?

For my part, I would hope that the output of Raynor Winn will not continue - for the reasons highlighted above.

There has been no admission of any wrongdoing - just a stout defence. There is no clean sheet, no moving on - just stuck in the mire.

There's actually also been something of a resounding silence on the part of RW and her lawyers. I would have expected (well, no, not expected because I don't think she HAS any defence, but it would have been usual in most cases) for there to be an ongoing dialogue of explanations and counter claims. Even constant threats to sue if more articles or books continue to raise issues. But apart from the initial, rather breathless 'it's lies, damn lies, here's all my evidence that Moth is really ill and you're all big meanies and MY MENTAL HEALTH..' (paraphrasing, obviously), we've not heard from the Walkers.

We've also not heard much from PRH. No lengthy explanation about how OWH is being launched differently, or apologies for anyone who might have taken the previous books too literally. Nothing.

It just gets worse. Jeffrey Archer is now on Sky News promoting his new book that is a mixture of fact and fiction, following features on Sarah Ferguson being dumped by charities as her mixture of fact and fiction about Epstein, and Trump favouring fiction over science yet again. Perhaps the Walkers might want to take Archer, Andrew and Fergie on a quick round of the English Coastal Path and next week they can ask Trump to join them on the Appalachian Trail!

Honestly, if I’d been her PR person, I’d have advised keeping completely quiet and starving the story for lack of oxygen. And PRH are almost certainly, assuming they’ve decided to publish OWH in some form, primarily focused on deciding what form it needs to take, and dealing with an author in hiding who may not share their ideas about necessary changes to OWH.

There's no lack of oxygen for the story, as proved by all the people coming out of the woodwork to say 'yes, us too!' They've just refused to give any satisfaction in the form of apology or (as I would have thought SalRay would be clamoring to do) rebuttals and negations.

I actually think that their only hope is to stay silent, never again put their heads above the parapet, and to move somewhere quiet in a new name. The fuss has only died down because there's nothing more anyone can do than has been done.

Like a particularly weird episode of that TV programme Pilgrimage, but rather than analysing their own religious beliefs or lack of, participants would be administered lie-detector tests while eating lightly salted blackberries?

Like the Walkers duetting on ‘I’ve Got a Brand New Combine Harvester’ wearing neckerchiefs, I’d definitely watch that.😀

See, I’d disagree. It’s died, other than on here. If I were the Walkers’ PR, I’d count that as a victory.

And if I were PRH, I’d possibly see it, cautiously, as an indication that OWH (in some form, debatable exactly what) has a reasonable chance of selling adequately if released this time next year, to longterm fans who are only vaguely aware of some background controversy about TSP, but aren’t interested in the details.

In fact, cynically, with a carefully-prepared SW, a weepy, sincere, raw high-profile interview about her past ‘mistakes’ might be excellent publicity and actually draw in new readers.

If I were very cynical indeed, I’d be making Tim go on one of those supervised VLCDs Hollywood actors go on when they have to drop large amounts of weight for a role, and drop his vitamins (very easy to look ghastly on TV just by not wearing makeup), hoping he’s deteriorated, even if it’s just wear and tear and ageing, and suggesting he use a stick for publicity. Or two sticks.

Being extremely cynical, if I were SW I'd be waiting for Tim to die. Then appear in public again being very vocal about how ill he'd been for the last (however long they've been in hiding) and writing another set of books about how they were driving to a bleak existence (supported only by their millions) and how dreadful it had all been for her.

If Tim were to go in the next couple of years, this would absolutely fly. If I were him I'd be sleeping without a pillow for a good while, In a separate room, with a lock on the door.

(Very lighthearted because I'm sure she loves him really and I wouldn't wish widowhood on anyone).

Yes, exactly! Tim's death would help everything along nicely.

(And yes, I'm being black-comic about this on here. SW should definitely not suffocate him with a pillow.)

Good afternoon all. I hope you are well today.

Reports of this story's death have been greatly exaggerated.

If/when Raymoth rear their heads in public or online that will spark significant interest. I can't see Salray having the cheek to appear at any literary events, at least for the foreseeable future. Although the creative wellness retreats were due to start early next year, (and I think another project with Gigspanner), I would be very surprised if either of those can go ahead. Then there will need to be a final decision about the fourth book On Winter Hill.

Yes, things have gone quiet on the surface after an avalanche of information but that is only to be expected. Under the surface Our Chloe is still hard at work, so watch this space in the months ahead. Others will probably be working on things too, but we all know this is really Chloe's story to tell.

These threads will always be here to return to as new information surfaces.

Even if there’s another book in it for Sal, the lit fest appearances, TV interviews etc are done for. I certainly don’t think this is any PR victory for the Walkers.

Apologies if this has been covered, I haven't read all of the other threads on this in full, but was there ever any word from Dave and Julie, the couple they got friendly with on TSP?

Agreed @crossedlines . This has been PR carnage. You can't recover from that with a few quiet weeks.

Not a public peep from Dave and Julie @ObelixtheGaul

No, they've never spoken publicly about the Walkers. I can't say I blame them -- who'd want to invite the media scrutiny, whether you were speaking positively or negatively about them? And of course we have no idea how honest the Walkers were with them, or how well they really know one another. Dave and Julie may have been as taken aback as anyone else at (1) the embezzlement back story and (2) how they were represented in print.

Given that the Australian bloggers remember their encounter with the Walkers differently to the way SW represents it in TSP, and Bill Cole says that Tim told him he only had a couple of months left to live at the same time SW claimed he'd had a 'miraculous cure' brain scan, it's perfectly possible Dave is thinking 'I have no memory of saying that Moth looked incredibly fragile at the start of the Iceland trip' or 'Did I really question whether Moth was really able for the Cape Wrath trail?' but decided not to go to the media about it.

And yet there she is, wearing her Dr Salray lab coat.

I do think she looks like the cat who got the cream.

I have wondered on and off about Dave and Julie @ObelixtheGaul I think @AncientHarpy is right, they probably don't want to get involved. I have looked in the past at a particular Julie, I don't have Facebook, Instagram, linkedin or X which makes snooping, I mean researching difficult :) I agree with@DisappointedReader there is much more to come out.

It's a (minor) PR victory in that the heat on them has died down, they've not spoken to the press or appeared in public, or indeed been papped. (One assumed the photographers hanging around where they're living have dispersed.)

Unless Chloe H has major new revelations to add (and it's hard to think what they might be that would warrant the expense and huge time investment of further investigative reporting now), I think it's dead in the water for now, unless disgruntled family members come out with new stories?

And I agree that a carefully-curated 'mea culpa' interview might both placate established fans and draw new readers for a revamped OWH. Enough to be worth publishing, anyway.

Agreed, though, that it's unlikely we will see SW gigging with folk musicians, teaching writing or doing wellness retreats. The brand is definitely too damaged for that.