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]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 20 IS FULL

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

Just getting aboard the charabanc under slightly different name.

Notes from last thread:

The "wedding" photo could be a recreation of the event once home, showing one set of parents their outfits. Hence why parents aren't dressed up.

Also, Sally's parents may well have sussed Moth and that's why they said he was no good for her. He obviously has always thought rather well of himself, and if he was feigning illnesses since he was young, I doubt a down to earth stocksman and his wife would have much truck with that.

But Sally's mum always held her daughter in high regard. What a shame Sally spoke so ill of her, whilst robbing her and Tim's parents.

I invested in TSP because I wanted to know what happens to a dying man when everything in life is stripped away including life itself. I thought there would be some great revelation. I very quickly realised I was reading a fabricated, cobbled together, poorly written piece of rubbish. PRH is doing itself no favours by continuing to churn out such a poor excuse for redemptive literature.

It's also on Amazon Prime now

I was assuming the same, that her parents threw some kind of little festivity at their house and had them put on their wedding outfits for photos and cake.

The stern, repressive version of her mother SW depicts in TWS would have done this sourly to put a brave face on the elopement for the neighbours, but if the family members in the documentary are right and her mother in fact idolised SW, it's perfectly possible she did it to show love and acceptance of her daughter's cream-suited choice of husband...

Whatever about TSP's effect on her family, it must have been tremendously difficult for SW's sister to read her hostile depiction of their mother in TSW. And obviously, to be pretty sure your sister was exaggerating and misrepresenting your BIL's 'terminal illness' while you yourself were genuinely terminally ill with cancer...

I wonder whether SW consulted her sister about whether she wanted to be included as present at their mother's deathbed in TWS -- I mean, some memoirists will delete people who don't want to be mentioned. I just wondered about SW's decision to delete her sister's existence from not just their mother's deathbed but also from their childhood, and whether this was her own decision, or something she did because her sister asked.

My argument against the photo being a staged 'once we got home' one is that they both seem to have their 'wedding hair' on. Sal's looks very 'done' (as does her mother's, by the standard of the day) and their hair isn't showing any sign of having grown out - which especially Tim's might have been expected to have done during the course of their holiday. I have very short hair and after more than a couple of weeks after a cut it's starting to go shaggy at the edges.

And my BF, who loved TSP and its follow ups and tried to persuade me to read them, hasn't seen or heard any of the articles or dialogues regarding the books. She said that she 'once saw a headline' and had heard some scandal regarding it all but she's not very tech savvy and never followed any of it up. But don't worry, I gave her chapter and verse on the whole thing.

I don't think the photo was staged as such, the photo looks to me like a nice little do for the family, the table behind has a lace cloth and flowers. I think it would be a perfectly normal thing for Salray's mum to want to mark the occasion. From Salray's demeanor I don't think she was enjoying it, but Moth looks quite comfortable. They would have put on the clothes and done themselves up, wedding style, because that's what the party was to celebrate, the wedding that the other relatives hadn't shared.

Afternoon all and a warm welcome back aboard The Salty Path Express. Many thanks to @BemusingBrandy for providing the guiding light across the salt marshes.

Thank you @DisappointedReader the charabanc is looking really festive with all the fairy lights, @BemusingBrandy got us on board safely, as we are getting near Christmas, can we get the makings for a snowball or two, perhaps a few Babychams :)

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat I'd be glad to see (hear) a BBC Podcast, even if it covers old ground. The more exposure this whole thing gets, the more chance there is that the buying public will stop, well, buying.
@Mauvish1 Maybe a BBC docu will have a slightly different focus. The recent radio programme about the fake Scottish tea grower didn't so much tell the story, as look at how he was able to pull the wool over everyone's eyes, and questioned whose job it was to do due diligence. Maybe they'd do similar with the WWs.

I've looked back at my PMs and it is indeed a BBC podcast rather than a documentary. Mistakes were made whilst my foot was on the accelerator revving the charabanc engine. MNHQ have now added a corrective note to the OP for me. Thanks to @SimoArmo too for filling in @Aussiebornandbred.

I have mixed feelings about the BBC podcast for reasons I won't go in to here as it is someone else's story. It has been in the offing for at least a couple of months. We should remember that the BBC also helped to fund the TSP film. As I understand it the journalist involved did work for Our Chloe on the initial Observer exposé but Our Chloe has not been involved in this podcast. On balance however I have to agree that the BBC spotlight should bring the truth, as opposed to Salray and Timoth's tangled web 'my truth', to more people and that can only be a good thing.

Even if the BBC is deeply entangled in Sal's web of deceit, it's hard to see what they could possibly say to put a positive spin on anything we've heard over the last few days. Plain denials, as Sal doesn't yet seem to have discovered, aren't going to cut it against actual evidence.

Fortunately, her views seem to be in the minority in these FB posts, which was refreshing to see - there were rather more of these 'but does it really matter?' comments following the original Observer article back in July, most notably on The Bookseller's FB page. Btw, Jacqui Gammon also appears to lack reading ability - she calls Moth 'Moss' 🙂

I said way back in the mists of the very early thread that the characters I’ve known that Tim reminds me of, were experts at getting other people to do what they want them to do- and while she may have always wanted to write a book, I still think his hand is in all the theft and deceit, whether directly or through indirect emotional pressure and manipulation. His parents’ money that Sally took went into his account, apparently- £25K is not going to be something you overlook so he knew it was there and must have known where it came from because they put his parents up in the barn!

Maybe the books are her way of laundering the money, as it were? Convincing herself along with the public of what the “contextual truth” was? And there’s that line in HNTDDD about ‘how did she get here, she was meant to be a pure spirit’.
Could it be both confession and plea for help?? Acting under coercive emotional manipulation and control?

I've managed to catch up again I think. Hopefully now certain members of our esteemed gang - mentioning no names! - will have sobered up from last night. Glad also to see that @SimoArmo has been restored to us having missed the guiding light, the giant 'This Way' sign made from shells and pebbles on the beach and Grant's dancing girls waving pompoms and been temporarily led away by The Lantern Men.

Yes, I know, I'm inserting Norfolk folklore instead of South West folklore here. What's a bit of artistic licence between friends?

@IndolentCat Could it be both confession and plea for help?? Acting under coercive emotional manipulation and control?

Or,if we're going to get really twisty about it - perhaps it was Moth himself who stole the money, putting it into his own bank account - and Sal is simply taking the rap rather than admit her Perfect Husband is also a thief?

I appreciate the thanks for providing the link @DisappointedReader pleased to help with these threads, which I think have been worthwhile in thrashing out some facts in this sorry saga.

I would hope that anyone would acknowledge the sterling work of Chloe in further work on this deception. I would like to hear more from the BBC as I think they complemented the original findings by featuring Debbie Adams, the Hemmings' daughter, who was so sad for her father.

The Salt Path: 'Trusting Raynor Winn was our biggest mistake' - BBC News

If this is by the other journalist who worked on the original article, Helen Clifton, she probably did a lot of the legwork for the investigation.

I don't see what's wrong with Helen doing her own podcast about it for the BBC.

And the more exposure it gets, the better! Plus more people are possibly likely to hear the BBC Podcast (which might hopefully get some airtime on Radio 4) than would listen to the Observer one.

I’d like to nominate ‘Simon Armpit’ as the best username in the long history of these threads. Love it.

Me too and totally agree about the film - I noticed that the year the judge gave for the possession order was shortened to 5 days for the film, but i daresay the executive Co producer didn't want anyone looking too closely at what happened in that year!

Put the article link into archive.md

I do hope the DWP are looking at the Walker's history of claiming benefits, especially given the further comment from the family member about them not working eventhough there was plenty of work. May be the best way of getting one or both of them the time in prison that they so richly deserve.

Thank you. My previous lives on MN have included Catwith69lives, WhoDaresWinns.IzzyWizzyLtsGetBizzyWynThomas and Naughty Noodler! I toyed with DampSquidge (DampSquid was unavailable), RaynorWhinge and NoodlesandFudge. Onwards and upwards!

I've sometimes wondered, whether like MammaMia, the next reincarnation of TSP, had they not been rumblef by CH, would have been a West End Musical!

Madonna as Sal and Gary Kemp as Moth? Music and lyrics by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

There's some ready made songs for the musical already out there, like:

In this life, one thing counts
In the bank, large amounts
I'm afraid these don't grow on trees,
You've got to pick-a-pocket or two

You've got to pick-a-pocket or two, boys,
You've got to pick-a-pocket or two.

Large amounts don't grow on trees.
You've got to pick-a-pocket or two.

Why should we break our backs
Stupidly paying tax?
Better get some untaxed income
Better to pick-a-pocket or two.

You've got to pick-a-pocket or two, boys
You've got to pick-a-pocket or two