Thread 20 : 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 ...

First thread: To feel disappointed after reading this in The Observer about the author and her husband from The Salt Path book and film? | Mumsnet

Links to threads 2-16, the other 20 Observer articles and videos to date, Raynor Winn/Sally Walker's statement, our timeline and sources can all be accessed in the OP and first few posts of Thread 17: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5403285-thread-17-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 18: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5422393-thread-18-to-feel-disappointed-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Thread 19: www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5437058-thread-19-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 exposé items 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 drive-by scolders and ploppers 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. Over five months we have done amazingly well together for 19 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.

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

Up and coming:

• Salt Path: A Very British Scandal, Monday 15th December 9pm Sky Documentaries and NOW
• Sunday Papers Live, The Real Salt Path with Chloe Hadjimatheou, Sunday 7th December (see image below for tickets and further details)
• Observer Newsroom: The Real Salt Path Story, Thursday 8th January 2026 6.30-7.30pm. More information and to book via this link observer.co.uk/our-events/the-real-salt-path-story

“At the end of the day, I just wanted to make sure nobody else in this country, or anywhere else, thinks they can walk themselves better.”

Amen to that.

Argh I feel sick after trading that

*reading
Ffs autocorrect

I don’t know how that bit about Moth Winns recovery was a miracle link to an old Observer article ended up in my post!
I hope I haven’t broken any MUMSNET rules by copying the whole article. Apologies if I have and I expect the moderators will just remove my posts. I was just so excited to read all this while you Uk readers where still sleeping

Penguin website still marketing the book as an "unflinchingly honest ... true story".

Wow, @Aussiebornandbred thank you so much for this public service!
I’m flabbergasted.
So much to say, which I’m sure others will do more eloquently. For now I’ll just refer to the way that SalRay (new statement) blames Tortoise Media for seeking to “drive a wedge” between family members. That wedge was well and truly wedged long before Chloe started this journey!
Btw for those not on Instagram, there’s a new photo: SMOTYN!!

As expected, Sal denies all the allegations. Keep calm and carry on. Incredible.

There will always be mugs who buy anything she cranks out. Hopefully the vast majority of straight thinking folk will see right through her obfuscations and denials and recognise her for the pathological liar and literary fraud that she is.

Statement — Raynor Winn

I notice there are no threats of legal action in the new statement

“I did not steal from family as others can confirm”.
Who are these mythical others?

Just read her statement. "Reclarify the facts"!!! She has done no such thing. All she has done is demonstrate precisely what you say - that she is a pathlogical liar and literary fraud. The allegations and confession letter are dynamite to her smokescreen.

The Father Ted denial of guilt!

I guess she thinks that by posting photos of a) the coastal path b) Monty and c) Smotyn she is setting the record straight. “See, they’re all real. I wasn’t telling porkies”.
And the tragedy is, some people will fall for it.

Wow!!

So SW put on a sick, ‘I can’t help it, it’s an addiction’ act, even pretending to be sliding into delusions when family members tried to confront her about missing money?

Truly hideous.

Just sat down with the print copy (two page spead) and the first thing I notice is a photo from their wedding saying "Raynor and Moth Winn at their wedding alongside her mother." So did they pose for pics in their wedding clothes after they got home or were parents present at the wedding in Scotland?

Thank you so much for all that.
You may well be able to access Now TV by using a UK VPN. We did it to watch something on the BBC I think while on holiday...
Set up a VPN on your chosen device (free ones are available)
Buy a Now TV subscription from the UK website and hopefully Bob's your uncle.
Better Uncle Bob than Uncle Timmoth

The seals on the SW path beach and the bunnies, so innocent, wild and free (d from a pet shop) outside their tent.

Reliable witnesses with truth in their hearts and no skin in the game

I thought that RW's website previously had acknowledgements and/or proper contact details of agents or PR people. If so, have those been changed with the new update, or am I misremembering?

I'm curious about the info about HNTDDD. CH does not mention where the synopsis comes from, if she has a copy of the book or how she knows that SW is Izzy Wyn-Thomas. Maybe she does have the proof but I would prefer to have read more details. She also does not mention the award she erroneously received if the facts are correct. But, I do not read newspapers regularly so maybe this is the normal depth of articles.

And this is what happens when you spend five months disecting someone's lies. Everything you read about it has to be picked apart regardless of the source!

Still reading (with my jaw on the floor) but thank you so, so much @Aussiebornandbred

@Aussiebornandbred 💐👏🏻❤️🙏🏻
Thank you!!!!
Jaw on the floor here too!

Thanks very much @Aussiebornandbred
<waves from across the Tasman sea>

Right Salray, you now expect people to believe that 8 members of 2 different families have set out to publically discredit you, to the extent of forgery, just for fun? We all know who the liars are and have for some time.

Chloe must have read HNTDDD, which sounds far more autobigraphically sound than TSP.

As for invoking the shade of Smotyn, it is so bizarre I just...

Hello fellow travellers. My jaw is dropping as I haul myself on board. (Blooming heck look at all the empty wrappers all over the seats and floor! And ow! I'm sitting on nasty scratchy bits of raw noodles! You untidy lot!) So I had never heard of Raynor and Moth. Never heard of the book. However, the Observer article struck me on so many levels... I was telling people "This! And this! And at the same time etc!" I wanted to know more, understand more. I suspect, like you guys, I intuitively sensed that the story was far from complete.
So finding this thread was wonderful... Thank you all for your persistence and humour!

I asked a friend of mine to record on Sky , but she's told me she doesn't have Sky documentaries.. sigh.. It says on Now that it's minimum 6 months subscription, so if I subscribe for one month, do I have to stay for 6 months, or can I unsubscribe after watching the documentary? I don't subscribe to anything so I've no idea how it works...

Thank you very much, @Aussiebornandbred. Mind boggled!

You’re right, @Peladon — her previous statement had contact details for her agent Jennifer Christie and someone whose name I can’t remember at PRH, presumably in the publicity department. That’s now become a single gmail account with the name Lauren.

Thank you for posting the Observer article, @Aussiebornandbred.