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?

[DisappointedReader]

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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?

Thread 20: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5454438-thread-20-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 5 months we have done amazingly well together for 20 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. Our Cardboard Mascot Our Simon has had his head stuck back on and is wearing a very fetching tinsel boa. The charabanc is bedecked with fairy lights and very well stocked up. May the seasonal fudge and mulled cider be with you one and all. 🎅🌲🎁❄️🎄

These threads are the gifts that keep on giving:
New:

• Salt Path: A Very British Scandal, available from Monday 15th December Sky Documentaries and NOW TV
• ‘Don’t look for the money. I’ve taken it all’: Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s ‘confession’ that she stole from her family | The Observer

Up and coming:

• 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
• Podcast series from The Observer's award-winning Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou
• BBC Documentary (NB Not involving Our Chloe)

*MNHQ correcting above 'Documentary' to 'Podcast' at request of author

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 20 IS FULL

Beautiful photos @IndolentCat .

Fabulous photos, and thank you from a Welsh person missing their home country right now ❤️ The Welsh Coast Path sounds like something that the 'Winn's' would indeed exploit, given the brass neck, and the assumption that a publisher would ever touch their sorry ass ever again.

Merry Christmas everyone and greetings from NW Wales. Apologies for late arrival on the no 21 charabanc <hands round more fudge>. A combination of work life getting busier as Christmas closure approached plus a poorly dog has kept me away, though with you in spirit as ever. You'll be delighted to know that I unwrapped a copy of Our Simon's 'Walking Away' on Christmas Day, so am v much looking forward to reading that.

Hope those of you with health difficulties have a better year ahead. And I agree that this is a lovely group of posters. It's been a pleasure getting to know you <blows kisses all round>

Hi all 💖 I've been following these threads for a while after the CH observer article. I'm based in Bournemouth and a frequent walker of parts of the path. The book had meant a lot to me and I was always a fan of non-fiction books, preferring them over fiction. Unfortunately, the whole salt path scandal has completely put me off the genre and made me rather cynical. Luckily it hasn't put me off walking. Anyway, can someone explain the charabanc thing? 🤣 Big love xx

@ThisQuirkyRaven the charabanc is the transition from one thread to the next, as more threads have been needed it became a standing joke that people sometimes fell off or missed the new one, but the hard core of posters would carry on (with fudge and cider supplies, stolen of course). A bit like the old-fashioned, Just William style of group transport.

Nice to meet you during this pause in the charabanc’s progress. Let’s mill around here for a bit while everyone has a wee, grabs a snack and a drink, and stretches their legs before we all get back on board for the Lent Term Mission.

We are all awaiting the Observer Newsroom sessions continuing their Salt Path work. (I’d join online but I work on Monday nights!) The charabanc will be awash afterwards with discussion and speculation.

I hope that everyone does their pees before embarking, and that the charabanc will be awash with discussion and speculation only.

Good to have you aboard @ThisQuirkyRaven

Thank you for the welcome and the charabanc lore 🤣 I did briefly worry I’d missed the bus and would have to set off on my own Salt-Path-style pilgrimage, trudging along with nothing but moral outrage and some stolen fudge. Very relieved to be safely aboard — bladder emptied, expectations managed.

There are quite a few writers on board, reputable ones not brass-necked appropriators with Mars bar fetishes and wads of stolen cash.

How encouraging to hear from a non-fiction lover @ThisQuirkyRaven as we appear to be in the minority. ("Everyone to their own taste" as the French say!)
I read TSP assuming it was an accurate account of their travels, but doubts were subsequently sown when, at the cinema, we saw J I faithfully portraying Moth's limp! Impossible, I thought, to ascend the hill in that state. My DW had to stop me LOL!
The opening shots actually transported me back to my teenage years in Minehead, cycling (yes, honestly) back down the SWCP to Minehead harbour after a youth club "sausage sizzle" on Greenaleigh beach.

Welcome aboard @ThisQuirkyRaven !

@UpfromSomerset I think you were restrained indeed not to shout at the screen. I find myself irrationally annoyed if I even see the trailer picture on Netflix.

Thanks @TonstantWeader , hope your dog is doing OK now and well done on acquiring Our Simon's Walking Away. I loved it, not least because it is a larceny and misanthropy free zone but also because it's jolly funny in parts and very well written.

@HatStickBoots I got some Roly's fudge and keep forgetting it as put away in the cool. May save for podcast listening in a few days, although since the sepsis I've become quite a picky eater and this appeals where the carefully planned Christmas food and 987334 boxes of chocolates etc people have kindly given don't so much (I could donate to the charabanc store)

I'm back! Done my wees, got my emergency fudge and Headless Simon Armitage - anything else?

Must admit that I am increasingly worried that Sal is going to front this all out. Never apologising, never explaining, just keeping on as though absolutely nothing has happened and waiting for the fuss to die down. Unless the great and worthy among us keep the ire levels up people will start shrugging and not caring any more. Which means she will get away with it.

And the more I think about it, the more I think that PRH ought to have foreseen the issue of readers taking TSP et al as an instruction to keep exercising when suffering from CBD and printed a disclaimer in the front of the book.

Hi Vroomie!

I completely agree that unless the pressure is kept up (however) there is the risk they will wander into the West with money intact and even some semblance of a career and reputation. The utter non acknowledgement or explanation means this is Not OK.

Thanks for the mention @UpfromSomerset. So I have been mostly avoiding non-fiction since the whole SP debacle. I did however have to make an allowance for Ozzy Osbourne's last rites; I assumed it was too unhinged to fake as it reads like a sworn statement from a man who accidentally lived through seven decades 🤣

Glad you've joined us, @ThisQuirkyRaven and am snorting at the description of the Ozzy book. I can well imagine! Actually, if you like non-fiction, I'd thoroughly recommend 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks' which has nothing to do with walking but is v interesting nonetheless.

@Uricon2 unfortunately the Wild Rovering Pooing Correspondent is not in a good way and has been living up to his name. Frequently, poor chap. But we have excellent vets so he's in good hands.

Vroomers, I think things have gone well beyond any damage control that WorSal can exert over the situation. It seems to me that it's pretty much accepted now in the media that TSP is a load of old rowlocks (didn't the Indy describe it as 'a tawdry tale'?) and I can't see any return now to the lit festival circuit, as has been discussed before. Even if they do the 'hunker down and say nowt' route they've followed before, they have no reputation to speak of beyond a small number of diehard fans IMO.

<hands round more fudge>

has something else happened? I only know about the investigation by the Observer but these threads seem to have run and run sorry I can't read them all

we want to do this walk now inspired by the book, but hey, they can't take that away from us

A day or two ago someone said something about Monday evenings in Jan, did I miss something? Is that when the podcasts will come out?

I haven't seen any schedule, tho still looking forward to going in person to listen to Our Chloe next week

A subsequent Observer story and documentary earlier this month presented evidence from family members that Sally Walker had not just embezzled from her employer, which caused them to lose their house, but had also stolen large sums of money from her own mother and her parents-in-law, and pretended to be mentally ill when confronted, and that the families had never believed in TW’s illness because he was always complaining of vague illnesses.

I meant to say earlier that I recently read 'You Are Here', by David Nicholls, which is definitely fiction, but set on the Coast to Coast walk from St Bees to Robin Hood Bay. There is an afterword where he makes it very clear that all the pubs & hotels described in the book are completely fictional and are not representations of any of the accommodation available on the route. I thought that was quite interesting that he's done that for a work of fiction to stop assumptions being made given all the 'true and honest' blurbs we saw with TSP.

Greetings Charabangers!

This is encouraging
https://x.com/CL_Meadows/status/2005318771410620712?s=20

I’m pleased to see that SalRay’s Wikipedia entry now makes clear that the medical letters she released are dated later than the initial walk. (This being something that many of her supporters seem to gloss over).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynor_Winn#:~:text=According%20to%20a%202025%20account,working%20as%20an%20accounts%20clerk.

Good evening all, I'm not sure if I left the charabanc or not, I remember having a little tipple or two of the medicinal sloe gin and sliding under the seat. It was only the sound of @Vroomfondleswaistcoat's pot of ire bubbling that brought me round, I'm still a bit groggy. The potted history@SlightlyFeckless gave @Huckleberries was great, but now I am reminded of Salray pretending to be mentally ill and hearing voices. Just seen your post @TheTimeTravellersNiece I can't view this, though I can see she is calling them shithouses, so it looks encouraging :)

Let's see how long the article stays like that. There is a Wikipedia editor who seems keen on removing anything negative.

Thank you for sharing that, @Thelandsthatmustnotbementioned, even if it's only temporary as @Peladon suggests, it is so good that the dates have been noted and the discrepancy. Salray has no answer for this, she can't wave it away. The debate earlier about whether Salray can ultimately live this down, all the embezzlement, theft from family, exaggerating the walking, homelessness, stretching the timelines, taking an award that she didn't deserve, these things, I think Salray could possibly live down, but lying about Tim's diagnosis, health and supposed recovery that won't be so easy.

The dates have been like that since July.