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.

“Fanboy Bill Cole the pirate cider farmer” 🤣 can we approach Johnny Depp to play this part please??

On the subject of the supposed tech ignorance played by Ray or Sally as Ray 😵‍💫 … Sally was a bookkeeper and ran a business ffs. Embezzlement aside, she would have known her way around accounting software and social media I’m pretty sure.

(of course the reader doesn’t know about the embezzling yet.)

A few observations raised from the search I’ve just done for those photos of Dave-like-and-Julie:
From memory, there used to be 2 photos - one from Iceland and one on the Thames path walk. Am I right in thinking they were on SalRay’s instagram? I couldn’t find them there and there’s now only one Iceland photo. I thought there were more. Apologies if I’ve missed something - I’m on a train with dodgy internet.
Anyway, I found the TP one on the TP FB page - but while there, was interested to see that someone was digging for their (D and J’s) contact details a week ago - ostensibly to discuss the Iceland walk - and the TP page caught on and said they didn’t give out that sort of info!
A mumsnetter? A journalist?? We are not alone in the quest for D and J.

I’ve just found a couple more
photos from Iceland at the start of her IG feed but she’s definitely removed quite a lot since I last looked…

They'd never fit in the margins. Would be easier getting a black marker pen and redacting every word that is associated with known inconsistencies. It would be very black, particularly the first 3 chapters.

I'm sure I'm not the only one to read it as Easy Win Davies

I'm still looking forward to the follow up: 'There's a second book that should be released January/ February next year, it takes the story a step further - 3 Mountains and a Ceilidh - it looks back and forwards in a cross-country romp through the UK. I'll let you know when it's released.'

I hadn’t noticed! That’s brilliant!

22nd October!
£22

www.penguin.co.uk/books/320471/on-winter-hill-by-winn-raynor/9780241484586

Easy Win Davies sounds like a race horse. Penguin are certainly still backing her.

Quite shameless.
PRH are brazening it out, and it's a good gamble for them.

I've always read it as an in-joke: "Izzy (is 'e) Wyn Thomas?" To which our couple chuckle, and say to each other smugly: "No 'e is not! But only we know that!"

Sorry, a mistake was made, at least I kept the surname Welsh 😜

Until recently it had been showing as October 23 2025 on Amazon UK but it has now changed to 22 Oct 2026

There is a Mr Wyn Thomas,and a Professor M. Wyn Thomas, both of whom seem to have written important things about Welsh culture and language etc. If "Izzy Wyn Thomas" were an in-joke ("Is (h)e Wyn Thomas?"), this might have added to the hilarity.

Brass neck is an understatement. Plus it'll be difficult to get a second hand copy then to scrutinise. I'll want to read it for that purpose but I will not buy it new as Sal is not getting any of my cash.

Hypothetical question - because I don't think a copy will ever surface but...: If Izzy Wyn-Thomas is attributed as holding the copyright for her book HNTDDD (which is usual for authors) but if she is also non-existant, then who actually owns the copyright and how would it be proven? Would it require Raymoth to basically fess up and provide evidence that one (or both) of them wrote it? I suppose they'd never need to unless a copyright infringement occurred, but I was just intrigued by such a scenario. I'm sure there's a simple legal explanation of how copyright works that is far beyond my comprehension.

That is such an interesting thought @SimoArmo

I didn’t notice the year… they’re going to wait a whole year before releasing it? I wonder why..

On Winter Hill, about a solo coast-to-coast walk Winn completed without husband Moth, had been scheduled to be published in October.
"Given recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth's health condition which has caused considerable distress to Raynor Winn and her family, it is our priority to support the author at this time," Penguin Michael Joseph said in a statement.
"With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, have made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October."
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.

“Intrusive conjecture”
The distress comes from knowing that the deceit and all the discrepancies in the previous writings have come to light, I would have thought. Penguin’s priority is to support the author, despite this and not their customers.

I wouldn't put much store in the release date. I've got a friend who is a travel writer and his next book has been pushed back 12 months several times during the last 5 years. It's now due out next April! So I suspect PRH are playing it by ear and won't make any firm decisions about whether to publish OWH until they are convinced that no more damaging revelations about TSP and Raymoth that will surface that will further damage their credibility.

@ShrinkWrappedInSeattle Anyway, I found the TP one on the TP FB page - but while there, was interested to see that someone was digging for their (D and J’s) contact details a week ago - ostensibly to discuss the Iceland walk - and the TP page caught on and said they didn’t give out that sort of info!
A mumsnetter? A journalist?? We are not alone in the quest for D and J.

This interested me. I have been advised, and there is every reason to trust this, that the BBC is preparing a podcast on this controversy.

But why do they need to lay blame on the facts and truth which have been revealed? Although it reads like the author’s choice of words in the statement.

" it is our priority to support the author at this time"
I read this as Penguin hiding behind a noble and ethical statement - to support ignoble and unethical behaviour.

Honestly, I read it as just a placeholder that camouflaged ‘We’ve pulled OWH’ with a face-saving reason (‘because our author has been upset by a media story’) that didn’t really commit them to any position other than a token ‘support’.

I mean, I bet SW was ‘upset’. Having your carefully constructed rewriting of reality and your criminal past exposed is inevitably going to be upsetting.