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

Watching the documentary again, the bit in Glastonbury where a burner is lit and fills the room with ‘breath of heaven’ smoke:
”I know what we called it in college, and it wasn’t ’breath of heaven’…”
Rather reminded me of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, where Bill Nighy’s character says
”They gave me this pipe, said it was apple tobacco, but that's not what we called it when I was a student…”

I used to work for our local council in an adjoining area and know for certain that. Our local Registry Office is in a certified building registered for holding marriages that closes once a year for a couple of weeks because of a fairly well known music festival being held in the grounds it is in . They set up in another council run office during that time, and births death registration and weddings etc are held there . But to do this , there has to be several administrative and legal hoops to have been satisfied because the additional venue has to be legally registered as a place that these sorts of affadavits can be legally made and witnessed and that takes time , which is why our ' 2nd' place is actually registered for marriages etc all.year round but not used except at the time of the festival. ... It's not going to be the back of any builders merchants set up on the off because of any reason the original place wasn't useable. In that case the local registrar would just cancel any wedding etc until they could set up legally to hold one , and any birth or death certificates would be issued from the council legal dept by the Registrar. ( Well in England and Wales anyway) ..

I struggle to see "sour grapes" in this instance. It has been repeated many times in these threads that a degree of artistic licence is expected in memoir and that "unflinchingly honest" marketing should, essentially, be taken with a pinch of salt. But it is undeniably clear that TSP and follow ups go way beyond what is an acceptable level fabrication. One cannot turn a blind eye to the veracity of events and characters when one knows of much more significant falsehoods. Everything must be considered a whole package here, not just the "big" lies and frauds, because ultimately it all stems from a single entity, the named author and her complicit husband.

It used to be though that weddings could take place anywhere in Scotland where the officiant was prepared to marry the couple. I went to a wedding on a beach around 1981, and another in the bride's house (her dad was the priest!). So I think the regulations re appropriate venues was different in Scotland from those in England.

I really hope so but most don’t have the detailed back knowledge & history we do.

The serious fraud & real life dishonesty is the worst of it & puts a different light on textual exaggerations & falsehoods etc but I don’t see that being called out on line so much outside of here. SalRay hasn’t shifted stance at all either which supports a ‘it’s all sour grapes & my truth’ narrative.

Obviously it may be very different in Scottish law, as so much is , but we were married in a Registrar office but were both living in different places in the UK. I can't remember now how far ahead we had to go and sign our intention to marry but I think it was definitely at least two weeks before. I went to the one we were due to marry in ( my local one in a south coast town ) and DH went to his local one in N London ..My procedure was easy , but they gave DH quite a hard time at his asking why he wasn't getting married locally etc , I assume jic he was being made to do a marriage of convienience etc !! That was coming up to 25 years ago ...
RayMoth would have both been married in areas they didn't live in, if they had ' eloped' I suppose so they probably would have needed to prove some sort of residence period, I imagine..( but the maybe in Scottish law you don't)

Oh wow. That's a powerful blog.

Last 4 reviews of TSP on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive. Almost as if the scandal had never happened. It's for this reason that I think, once the public interest in the story has died down after CH's podcasts come out, it will be business as usual for the Walkers.

I don't think they needed to be resident in 1986 @Laska2Meryls, but some prior notice would have to be given, from January 1978, fifteen days if marriage under normal circumstances. I'm not sure about the rules for special circumstances, still some notice though, definitely not just turn up on the day.

I've just had a look again at the marriage act Scotland 1977, active Jan 78, it actually says min 29 days, sorry mistakes were made :)

It is but it doesn’t really reference the serious fraud or the dishonesty in that sense.

Exactly, who cares if ‘Grant’ is really Warren, it’s an inspirational story. Whilst she doesn’t admit to any wrongdoing & it’s all an exaggerated family financial dispute we’re just nosy, prying rubberneckers. Or they can spin that way I fear.

Got to love the new Thread title ,,

That is why we have to remember that Salray has published Tim's diagnosis and the date is 2015, her whole miserable concoction is based on the lie that Tim was diagnosed in 2013, otherwise we have no terminally ill husband.

Good point but didn’t she spin it all a different way & most were taken in (?) ‘It’s shocking I have had to EVEN RESORT to showing the medical proof, consultant’s letters are here…’ to paraphrase Currently they’re living proof crime & dishonesty pay.

I agree @PinkPanther57, in my mind this is proof of the lie, but that it is unfortunately, not how everyone sees it. But I think one of CHs podcasts will focus very much on this, then it might get wider coverage, I think if the terminal illness while walking the path lie was fully exposed, it might change some more people's minds.

These reviews read very much like Raynor (or someone close) wrote them. Short, lacking detail, and parroting what she often says in interviews re: oneness with nature, feels like i'm on the path etc. Skeptical is an understatement now.

Yes, that might finally shift opinion but if they did stumble on this idea after he had some after effects re: falling through the barn roof, for example; then a ‘routine medical appointment that proved to be anything but’ - no one can conclusively prove.

I think it’s shocking enough there’s the ‘proof’ he said he was in final days to chap at Cider farm. Surely this could only be totally deceptive?

Anyone can prove that 2015 was the year that Tim finally saw a consultant neurologist, up until then he had undergone some tests. The proof is there in plain sight on her website.

They can't have been on the path in 2013 terminally ill with CBD, being mistaken for SA, when they didn't get a diagnosis until 2015, which is it, terminal illness or SAs double, both can't be true.

@TheTimeTravellersNiece might be able to shed some light on this, she can ask her uncle if Raymoth are fellow time travellers :)

I've already drained a glass of spiced berry cordial but I don't think there'll be room for any provisions in the charabanc ... we'll have to load up on the other side (after we've finished here, of course).

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5460943-thread-21-to-feel-disappointed-and-now-disgusted-too-after-reading-this-in-the-observer-about-the-author-and-her-husband-from-the-salt-path-book-and-film?

Yes of course, they came from The Land of Make Believe where time is fluid and you can jump in and out of any salt hole you like.

@DisappointedReader we are teetering dangerously close to the edge of ending the thread with no path to continue onwards! Your guidance is much required to steer our voyage into safe waters. Please can I ask no one to post until thread 21 is established...space for only 3 more posts remain here till this thread 20 is full.

Really enjoyed The Time Traveller's Wife. Found it a very moving book. The film was a bit naff though. Sorry to deviate from the path