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

In the Wikipedia entry for "Raynor Winn", in the Talk section, someone has today added a comment that (according to The Observer) TSP is in fact not RW's first book.

That aside, in the entries for RW, TSP (book) and TSP (film) "nothing has changed".

Hi all! Hope you’re all doing well. Mind if I jump back into these threads please (even though this one is close to being filled up…)? I have to admit Chloe H’s latest revelations at the weekend were pretty spicy!

lilydunn.substack.com/p/the-salt-path-saga-continues-what

This as posted the other day

I was in a museum in London a couple of weeks ago and in the gift shop, they were selling tote bags printed with the Angela Harding engraving from the cover of TSP. But it wasn't called TSP, just "Cornish path".

I woke up thinking about the documentary this morning…one of the things I was really glad about was that interview with the neurologist and the DAT scan stuff - the fact that Chloe went beyond TSP to look at the claims made in LL and all the “lit up like a Christmas tree” nonsense and that an expert was willing to come on camera and dismiss it all.

If it had been true it would have been so easy for SalRay to prove that consultation really happened, but of course she can’t. It’s tragic how she never has the right piece of paper at the right time.

I also thought it showed Tim’s true colours. The dismissive comments by the family. All those photos of his expressive face, his impressive muscle tone and laddish postures - and the CLOTHES. (That one of him halfway up a mountain in a tweed jacket…and the banana wedding suit…. Priceless)

Nice to think some of the ill gotten gains are being spent on expensive legal action.

Oh I hope it all goes on lawyers!

Has anyone got a pic of the wedding garb?

(Autocorrect changed the last two words to the very apt effing garbage!!!)

I thought they ran away to get married, the registry office was closed, and they were spontaneously married at the back of a hardware shop, or some such? Trying to reconcile that with the photo, which looks normal (leaving aside Banana Man)..

True. Though I would fully expect that in the Walkers’ alternative narrative, it will add to their feelings of injustice that they’ve been ‘forced’ to spend her ‘hard earned’ riches on defending themselves.

It makes me feel Sal has gone beyond the point of no return as far as a ‘Mea culpa ‘ potential best seller is concerned. If she’d confessed it all when the story broke, there might have been a smidgeon of possibility in taking that route. While she doggedly continues fighting every shred of evidence against her, over many months, it really closes off that avenue

I watched the documentary last night. While I think they did a decent job for viewers who didn't previously know much about the Salt Path scandal, I think they missed quite a few tricks. They probably just didn't have enough time (1hr 14 mins) to cover all the angles and maybe needed 2 x 1hr episodes to do the subject justice. Maybe there were legal issues which prevented some of the more contentious claims from being aired. Although CH's podcasts could remedy this, they won't have the same audience reach imo.

So being really picky, what were my quibbles with the documentary?

• I don't think they highlighted the mismatch between the events in the book which took place in 2013/4 and the glaring anomaly of the neurologist's letter which suggests a first tentative CBS diagnosis in 2015

• I don't think they dealt with the timing issues and the time spent at Polly's and what actually happened there vs what was described in TSP

• I don't think they highlighted what role 'Polly' played in the scene with the relatives as the owner of the confession latter from Sal's sister/her mother. She seems to have appeared off camera. Was Anne Polly?

• there was no mention of HNTDDD, its attribution to Sal and the Gangani Publishing fiasco

• there was no real mention of the huge chronology issues involved with TSP and the fact that they didn't walk 630miles over 18 months but much smaller chunks over a much longer periods

• there was no mention of the Parsons or the libellous depiction of the cafe owner at Mullion Cove

• there was no mention of the involvement of family members in the saga including their son's deleted FB posts of the body boarding trip with Moth in Newquay and ferrying his parents back to Bristol on 17 Sept

• there was no attempt to question whether Raymoth were as destitute as they claimed , whether the £30-48pw WTC claim was feasible or whether Moth was possibly the recipient of much higher disability payments of some variety

• there were lots of stills from Sal's IG feed but no attributions to where these were taken on the SWCP. The doc could have highlighted all the clothing anomalies in the photos and raised questions about the accuracy of the events described in TSP

• the doc didn't question the homelessness aspect of TSP by highlighting the amount of time spent staying with family vs the amount of time spent actually walking the SWCP

• I'm not sure the section showing CH at the Dulverton book festival really added much value and maybe too much time was devoted to Amelia Fairney, the ex Penguin exec who wasn't actually directly involved with publishing TSP

• I thought the previous interview with Ros Hemmings was more compelling. She could have added a comment about how much they trusted the Walkers (inviting them to Xmas lunch!) and that her husband was a broken man after the discovery of the thefts and died two years later. Insinuation that the Walkers have blood on their hands

Anyway those were my main gripes. But I'm not a documentary producer and I'm probably not typical of their target audience having spent far too much time on these threads over the last few months!

There was a nice interview with local author Ruth Saberton who got to know the Walkers when they lived at Haye Farm and expressed disappointment at being conned by them

The Salt Path | ruthsaberton

Finally, it turns out that Warren Evans (aka Grant), isn't a balding London wine merchant, he is a bed maker from Texas! The only things which actually occurred as described in TSP were that they stayed in his orchard and ate lasagne with him. The rest (guzzling huge quantities of wine, Moth getting a massage from his sexy PA, au pair and wife, getting ribbed about really being a poet called Simon) all utter b-s.

And as for Warren Evans himself, well he's had his own fair share of ups and downs in life. Since the article below was written, his bed making business has gone into administration as the cost of Brexit has hit and he has scaled back his business to focus on a small niche section of the market.

Warren Evans: Texas-born bedmaker feathering his nest | MoneyWeek

Now for CH's podcast!

I don't think the documentary had any need to drag up every single issue (they could, after all, have set Our Chloe walking the path just to check if any of the timings were possible!). Although I'm disappointed not to see HNTDDD and the CB prize raised, there was only so much time and the documentary had to appeal to those who had no idea about any of the allegations regarding the books. So it was always going to have to be a dash through many of the fact that we wish could be properly investigated.

There is a LOT more to be looked into. I think the podcasts will probably be the place for this, but, as you say, they won't have the reach of a TV programme. However, there's always the hope that if interest continues (and if/when OWH is published) that the podcasts will be turned into another documentary.

How do you know this?

Yes - fair points. They probably had to pitch the doc at a certain audience, many of whom might not have actually read TSP! So in that sense, better not to get bogged down with too much detail that might be lost on them.

@NaughtyNoodler I don't think they highlighted what role 'Polly' played in the scene with the relatives as the owner of the confession latter from Sal's sister/her mother. She seems to have appeared off camera. Was Anne Polly?

In Sunday's paper: Anne recognises herself as the character Polly in TSP...."There was work around but they chose not to work" says Anne.

OMG not that Warren evans surely??? Still got mine in the spare room 😂

Finally, it turns out that Warren Evans (aka Grant), isn't a balding London wine merchant, he is a bed maker from Texas!

@NaughtyNoodler he is the bed-maker from Texas for those of us who hung about around Camden in the 80s/90s, as I mentioned upthread! The Warren Evans bed showroom would have been well known to many. He still has one there (possibly the one where Chloe ate his lasagne?) despite his more recent difficulties.

Thanks for more feedback from the documentary @NaughtyNoodler - as I have not seen it.

One thing I can contribute - the owner and worker at the Mullion Cove cafe had decided not to take part in the documentary. I went there in September and was served by the lady that was quoted in The Observer, 03/08/25.

She has worked there for four years and was warned not to take a job there by people who had read TSP. She found Winn's email address, on her website, and wrote to ask her to explain the inaccuracies - but never received a reply.

Can anyone else help @FurryHappyKittens by posting the picture of the wedding/Bananaman? My copy of the observer has now gone to a friend and I can’t find the photo online…

It's the best I can do

Ruth Saberton
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Thanks @NineNuzzlyMinecraft - this would have been such an unusual
choice of wedding clothes for a young man back then. (Well it’s unusual now but even more so in that time). Sal is being completely conventional of course, but not Master Moth…

Neither of the wedding couple look exactly radiant with joy, do they?

Probably been blinded by the suit.

I don’t understand why Tim’s fashion sense matters? His tweed jacket could have been a hand-me-down for example but he liked it, his wedding suit is supposed to be a celebration of marriage. The 1980s fashions were all about men being dandies at one point. My father grew his hair out into a huge statement piece and wore a handlebar moustache in the 1970s.

I would have to re-read the books to see what was written about their wedding day but I’m pretty much convinced that everything written down is complete fiction, so I’ll save myself the bother.
I do really want to see some action now from Penguin and other booksellers to change the way these books are marketed. There is enough evidence and this “nothing has changed” 🐮💩 is what’s really getting to me. It should have changed and it needs to change. If her lawyers are being paid to prevent this change, that is even more damning.

I read Ruth’s blog and Winn being awarded a prize for memoir is beyond sickening.