Thread 22 : 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 21 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?

Links to threads 18-20 can be found in the OP of Thread 21: 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?

Most recent:

• 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

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 6 months we have done amazingly well together for 21 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.

After 21,000 posts there are still new things to look out for on the path ahead:

• 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, 13th January 2026
• BBC Podcast (NB Not involving Our Chloe)

Keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider.

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 21 IS FULL

Chloe tried to count the number of posts on our threads! She hasn't found anything here that has been a red flag. (She is being asked whether it's OK for an "army of sleuths" to be investigating this story in the way that we are doing).

Brilliant - some people on here have worked incredibly hard.

Frustrating they are not really looking at the online questions. Someone (surely one of us) has asked about HNTDDD but this has not been answered...YET

I was amused that she said that it must be incredibly weird if SW and TW have come on here and read the threads. I mean, it's not uppermost in my concerns...

Yes, I want her to either answer that, or the question about the date discrepancy between TSP and the medical letters...

OMG to the 'namecheck'!

Simon will be writing a Laureate poem about us next 😂

@OneThousandThreads : well asked!

Yay, Mumsnetter!

Hooray! A Mumsnetter - with badge - has asked about the dates.............

@Anythingbutheadlands thank you so ,so much for this

To the Mumsnetter in the audience -- well done, you. FINALLY a good question. Are you wearing the charabanc badge??

....agrees about the discrepancy in dates and the fact the letters don't mention Moth's walking

We have a charabanc badge?!? 😄

And that's that. We'll have to wait for the podcast for more ...

Someone posted a couple of them up the thread and suggested that Mners attending in person wear them as a way of identifying one another.

(To whoever that was in the audience, you have very nice hair.😀)

We got the last question thanks to our representative 💓

Proud to be part of the army of sleuths! Well done badge-wearing Mumsnetter!

Was that @OneThousandThreads? She said up the thread that she was sitting near the front, wearing a charabanc badge, and happy to identify herself, but I am incredibly short-sighted and trying to make pizza and supervise homework as well as watch, so a bit distracted...

That was very interesting.... but far too short.

Chloe, as you obviously have been reading this, can you do a Q&A with @MNHQ please...

And thank you - without you I wouldn't have been able to listen.

It was a decisively large badge worn by someone who said she was from this group so it must have been @OneThousandThreads

On the chat I said "The charabanc go ..." when she was asking her question

She might, quite reasonably, worry that we're going to try to claim co-writing credits. Or at least a footnote or two...😀

I think we'll be quite happy with a "thanks to MN for the encouragement" at the back of the book if she's worried about that.

Any objections?

If there needs to be proof of the benefits of pulling and picking away at a false narrative, even if there is broad disagreement, this is it.