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

I also can"t believe that. Literally.

This was told in the documentary

Hi all, just catching up on everything that’s been happening recently!

You might know better as Fandango52 - I keep on doing name changes and then forgetting to change back to F52 for these threads… 😅 What with all my name changes, I suppose I’m getting a tiny insight into what it feels like to be Raymoth haha.

Thanks to all the champion sleuths on this thread and @DisappointedReader for starting these threads - you’re all stars.

I thought that, whilst not earth-shattering, there were a few things. Among other things, I was interested to know that they aren't being threatened with litigation.

I will second that @JustLikeThat647, thank you all for your wonderful posts, great work ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ sleuthing.
Thank you @DisappointedReader for keeping the charabanc in good running order 💐
Sorry you are not feeling well @Uricon2, hope you perk up soon ❤️

Our Chloe is very careful to be seen to give benefit of the doubt on everything. For example, she gave the impression that she believes that SW and TW really are the world's most loved-in couple (rather than this being a fabrication). That's a prudent approach, and it may suggest that any negative comments which she makes have been tested very carefully.

You did very well thanks @OneThousandThreads - I spotted you before the meeting started and I didn't see your post just before the meeting with the 'close-up'. I had asked the same question as you on the chat - some people were getting frustrated that none of those questions were taken. One person kept flagging up about Penguin as she had some involvement with them. It did all go quickly.....

Well I can't imagine what else there is going to be in the podcast next week. There were no hints .. but in the trailer, shared yesterday, there were some 'new' voices talking about Sal.

So sorry you’re ill @Uricon2 😭 sending you strength and hugs, and wishing you a speedy recovery!

One little bit I hadn't knowingly heard before was CH saying she got in touch with the nephew on LinkedIn..he talked to her but when she wanted to know more than he could answer, he put her in touch with his sister, the niece of Tim's who featured on the Sky documentary.

And one question I am not sure if we know the answer to, is whether the handwritten letters/notes by Sal included any incriminating information/admissions... because obviously handwriting can be compared and therefore they can be more definitively attributed to Sally

Just catching up now..great work everyone!

And on these lines CH said that RayMoth do have friends/people who like them, but they refuse to talk to CH, as they are disapproving.
So again being seen to not be just mud-slinging and a big meanie.

Another thing she elaborated on was when she first got in contact with SalTim, she was approaching it from a positive viewpoint - namely being interested and wanting to know more about Moth's health and the details of his health improvements.
That's then when they said they were doing a documentary.

Sadly I missed tonight's event. I couldn't login on my phone so by the time i got my laptop out Our Chloe was wrapping up her final answer. But I have enjoyed reading back the live commentary and reporting here - saluting all of you who reported back to these salty shores! Sounds like a great event, and how nice that CH acknowledged the sleuthing of this merry throng of the disappointed & the disgusted! @DisappointedReader has steered a very fine ship / charabanc indeed over the past 6 months! Well done to them and everyone else on board!

(I feel I should say that I am not new on the scene here but I recently changed my name for some novelty. In the spirit of Raynor refusing to tell audiences Moth's real name, I'll let you worko outo who I have been formerly on the threads - you are top sleuths by now).

I agree @Peladon, Chloe is very fair, I thought the approach in the documentary was very balanced, the relatives said nice things about, Tim and Sally as did others. They were not portrayed in a completely negative way, I think Chloe treads a very careful path.

Thank you @OneThousandThreads so much good info, I am a bit confused by the documentary, did Salray say that a documentary was being made about Tim by someone else, or was Salray making the documentary?

I feel sure the documentary was fictional, and just a way of stalling CH’s interview request/request for proof of TW’s miracle cure. ‘Sorry, would have loved to, but we’re saving that for a documentary we’ve already committed to! Bye!’

@freshsocks: IIRC: Chloe explained as follows:

-Chloe contacted SalTim (through the publicists) and asked for details about the walk, "Moth"'s medical consition, etc.

-in relation to the medical condition, Chloe offered to look at any medical evidence on a confidential basis, so that she could say that she had seen it and it confirmed SalTim's story without revealing any of the detais.

• The requests were not accepted.

• The reason given for not discussing medical informaton was that they didn't want to provide it because they were making their own documentary on the subject (the implication seeming to be that they didn't want spoilers to damage their own show). Of course, no auch documentary has been released.

-When Chloe gave advance warning of the allegations which The Observer intended to publish, and invited comments, she got tno reply.

@Freshsocks CH asked WinnWalkers for an interview (about the time of the film's release) saying she was fascinated by Moth's recovery and wanted to talk about their journey, their story and about Moth's condition and they said that they were involved in making a documentary about Moth's condition. There was some toing and froing and the CH's interview didn't happen. This was all that was said about it.

Also of interest, Chloe has tried very hard to get responses from Gillian Amderson and the male actor (Jason?), but they have not responded. Chloe has high regard for both of them, and suspects that the silence is due to their contracts prohibiting them from saying anything that could harm the film, rather than them wishing to remain silent.

Thank you all so much for answering my question and removing my confusion, I can see that it would have been a very good stalling tactic @OnlyAfterwards, a good example given by @RainyTuesdaysAndSunnyWednesdays @Peladon thank you for your informative post, I don't suppose the actors know what to say at the moment, maybe they will in time. Nightcap and bed socks now :)

Thanks for giving birth to us, Mater! (Sort of.)

I think CH is absolutely correct in that GA and JI are likely to be constrained by their contracts from saying anything damaging to the film.

Interesting that she said that during the period the Walkers were supposed to be homeless they spent six months living in SW's deceased mother's cottage (which, added to the eighteen months they spent at SW's niece's flat, must give them a roof over their heads pretty much throughout the period of 'homelessness'?)

Also of interest that CH said that for all the Walkers' claims that they have always used the names Raynor and Moth interchangeably with Sally and Tim, everyone she spoke to who'd known them for some time said they invariably addressed one another as Sal and Tim, even though some people who'd met them more recently said they introduced themselves initially as Ray and Moth.

And that all legal documents, bank accounts etc used Sally and Tim Walker. And that SW had been very cagey about telling early interviewers what 'Moth''s real name was.

(I laughed at 'Moth is just Moth, like Prince or Madonna!' )

The other thing I noted was CH saying (in response to a question about whether supporters and friends of the Walkers had also emerged during her investigation) that absolutely, they had their supporters and were regarded as nice people by some (she mentioned the neighbours who knew them when they lived in SW's mother's cottage as thinking they were 'lovely'), but that those people had tended to respond with hostility to her approaches ('I know who you are!') and refuse to speak further.

And that, in response to a question about why any of this hadn't emerged much sooner, CH reiterated that many of the people involved/injured were 'unworldly' -- that the surviving Hemmings family members and former employees of the family firm had thought they were possibly also constrained by Martin Hemmings' NDA, that SW's niece who handed over the confession letters at a service station had spent much of her life living on farms, didn't 'come up to the city' a lot, and was very nervous about talking to a London journalist.

That someone (possibly again the niece, Anne?) had tried to contact PRH twice, but just got through to a switchboard and didn't seem to have managed to speak to anyone in any way that was useful.

I'm intrigued by how PRH will handle the content and possible launch of OWH.

It's all very well getting Sal to remove contentious content from OWH on the basis of what has emerged over the last 7 months in CH's articles and the Sky documentary. But what about all the additional stuff that may emerge in CH's podcasts (7 episodes?) and the subsequent BBC podcast? All of that may not emerge until the end of April. So how does that correlate with a putative publication date of 22 Oct 2026 for OWH?

And, as somebody commented on here recently, what is there going to be in the way of content, sans Moth, sans wild camping, sans noodles and fudge, sans jeopardy, sans wildlife in bleak midwinter other than a few nights in B&Bs accompanied by endless navel gazing and rumination on the distant memories of building a forever home in N Wales and fears for the future for planet earth and planet Walker?

The blog below gives a taster of walking the C2C in bleak midwinter!
Wainwright’s Coast to Coast … In Winter | The Anxious Gardener

WRT people saying Tim and Moth were nice people - well of course there will be people who like them! Even Ted Bundy was regarded as 'a nice man'. I would imagine that, unless you crossed them or had any financial relationship with them, they WERE perfectly pleasant to know.

And I suspect that much of the really punchy material that Our Chloe might have would be held back for the podcast. Headlines are much better stating 'Podcast Reveals Salt Path Two Falsified Documents!' than trying to sort out what answers during a Q&A revealed. In a podcast it can all be laid out with a proper narrative, rather than ad hoc.

Wonderful that the charabanc got a name check, Poor Headless Simon still goes unappreciated though...

And to @Uricon2 I wish you a speedy and complete recovery. Take care of yourself.

That isn't correct.

Under section 24(1) of the Limitation Act 1980 an action shall not be brought upon any judgment after the expiration of six years from the date on which the judgment became enforceable

nationaldebtline.org/get-information/guides/statute-barred-debts-ew/

Yes, absolutely, I bet they were perfectly nice neighbours who didn't bite the heads off budgies in the garden, or have loud parties where they played deafening death metal on Tuesday nights, and were perfectly conversable if you chatted over the wall or met them socially.

And yes to punchier material being held back. The event last night was really to flag up the launch of the podcast, I assume, and to draw people interested in the story who might not necessarily be habitual podcast listeners.

I hope you feel better soon, @Uricon2.

So, although we can all look forward to the podcasts, is anyone going to the sold out Ch/Backstory interview on the 20th?
backstory.london/products/20th-january-7-30pm-chloe-hadjimatheou-the-observer-on-her-the-salt-path-expose?srsltid=AfmBOorEuPL_-hpL7DzoBgYLV1TqnjLgMJg6ClRBXMdLm18rMLpjo5Dk