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 am fascinated by the sinuous line that seems to separate fiction and memoir. I imagine that in order to make a memoir engaging (and publishable) that the events that occur in it are carefully selected and presented in a certain way (exaggerated / sensationalised?) that drives the storyline.

It would be fascinating to find out where the initial manuscript for TSP sat within the spectrum of fiction / non-fiction, and how close to the line it was (and what side of the line!). I wonder if key events were shifted / moved / changed / adapted / represented differently at the behest of agents / publishers, moving the evolving manuscript more firmly into the realms of non-fiction?

Thinking about this today, I was reminded of the time many years ago, that I happened to buy the Independent (it wasn’t the usual paper that I read). I was really struck / moved by a column in it, which to all intents and purposes was describing the experiences that the journalist had had that week - which I recall were really shocking / difficult. There was nothing saying it was fictional - it was just a column. (It was Bridget Jones’ Diary!)

While Bridget Jones’ Diary may have initially been presented as a kind of memoir (although quite comedic / satirical) in it’s earliest incarnation, in the Independent), it was clearly presented as fiction, when the first book was published. (I am a big fan of Helen Fielding).

I’m also reminded of the lovely Sue Townsend, who (in one of the later Adrian Mole books) had Adrian Mole’s mother write a completely fabricated semi-autobiographical ‘misery memoir’ to great acclaim!

@Peladon your were right to note the doubly close relationship the two Hemmings had with the two Walkers - it was as @OnlyAfterwards said. I made a note of what Chloe said because, for all her professionalism, it must have an effect when you listen to the experience of Ros. Chloe said: "the Hemmings were shaken - they had taken them into their lives".

@Stoufer - I sometimes wonder how much some memoirs are 'massaged' for narrative content. But then the usual people who write successful memoirs are people who have become famous for something in particular (it's a well known fact that memoirs/autobiographies by non-famous or non-royal-adjacent people sell appallingly badly). So the memoir would be structured around their fame; so starting with their youth and how that fed into - whatever it was - and with the entire book hanging on what they were known for.

Sal didn't have that advantage, in that she's had to massage the facts even from the beginning. The loss of their home wasn't from what she said (and she had to hide the real reasons), Tim's illness wasn't diagnosed when she said, so she's had to move events around to make them work narratively. So she's had to invent lots of linking events and more invention to cover up things she doesn't want the reader to know or to think too hard about.

I think at that point it stops becoming a memoir and becomes a fiction with a loose basis in some factual events. Although, in the case of TSP, not many factual events.

One of my very few accomplishments is being able to do a pretty good Sean Connery impression as my party piece (don't all applaud at once!) so am now using it when reading your usernames.

It's surprisingly fun! Try it! 😂Respective partners, kids and pets may give you side eye but who cares?!

The criminality changes everything because the crimes against family and employers that they had a close relationship with, tell us everything we need to know to make a foundation for the kind of people they are. Their actions as more and more has come to light, do continue to surprise me. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, there’s something else that tops it.
The books’ success is all due to its lies and emotional manipulation. Raynor Winn became a very undeserving queen in the literary world with her unearned prizes and gifts being bestowed upon her. Her message, basically to mistrust medical science must play right into the hands of conspiracy theorists who have banged that drum for a long time but also to those who have given up on the nhs or can’t afford private health care. Her message didn’t even have truth behind it because her husband had not been diagnosed with a terminal illness. She dared to identify herself with the partners of those who do … writing about how she copes, supports and nurses Moth in the books. There is nothing she preaches that is new but when she talked about saving Moth, curing Moth by refusing to listen to medical advice, this is an insult. Of course, there was no particular medical advice offered for her to pretend to refuse to believe. This is the particularly offensive aspect of the books because it is damaging. She calls it giving hope. People would have booked to stay at her Wellness retreats… pausing just to reflect upon such an exploitative idea, the marketing of which and by whom makes my blood boil…. There are no depths they won’t sink to. I am so glad the plug has been pulled and hopefully they’ll find themselves where they belong…. Which makes me remember yet another of her buzzwords. Home.

Funny, that’s made me laugh! As a child I used to pretend to be David Attenborough, crawling around on the floor after my hamsters and pretending to be in a documentary speaking to camera about them and how extraordinary they were. I’d forgotten until your post reminded me!

@HatStickBoots Home

She harps on a lot about 'home' doesn't she? And yet, here she is with a significant amount of money, not setting up a settled 'home' for her children to inherit after she and Tim have gone, or somewhere that can be fitted with devices to make Tim's life (with his supposed increasing frailty) easier. Instead, she's renting a posh place. Which could leave them in a precarious position - it's certainly not setting up a settled 'home'.

Very funny @Uricon2 and @HatStickBoots , I must confess that I have given myself a commentary when out walking, Salray style, but I think I go all David Bellamy "Clambering through the undergrowth"

I don't know why they haven't bought a little property for home @Vroomfondleswaistcoat, as you say, something comfortable for them, maybe they have bought houses for the children.

Perhaps they have, @Freshsocks . But I can't see why they wouldn't want to have somewhere they could adapt to take account of Tim's changing physical requirements?

Unless, of course, he doesn't have any changing requirements (she said, innocently).

There have been a few articles published about what is acceptable in a memoir. Omission seems ok to preserve a storyline and prevent the memoir becoming a boring daily blog. Comission seems more debateable - deliberately adding or distorting events for narrative effect. It's pretty clear that TSP has huge chunks of omission and comission.

I'm ok with omission but comission ( aka fabricating facts) crosses the boundary between truth and fiction. Clearly Sal ( or her agent) didn't think her true story would have the commercial success of her 'fairy tale'.

If people enjoyed TSP, fair enough. Hopefully CH's revelations help readers understand that her 'unflinchingly honest' travelogue owes more to the genre of Jack and the Beanstalk than say Colin Thubron, Eric Newby or Paul Theroux.

If you were being generous to our Sal, if you ignore her prose, she has followed in a tradition of travel writers who have been somewhat 'economical with the truth'. I'm thinking of Bruce Chatwin amongst others....

I agree. If anything it was just setting up a business venture!

That could be it @Vroomfondleswaistcoat :)

I always had the feeling that the big place, where others could join them, was what they really wanted. I can't remember who said in an earlier post that Salray had got used to people valuing her opinions, and we know that Moth thrives on contact with others, especially eager to listen to his stories, who sit spellbound. A wellness retreat, to provide money and adulation for Raymoth.
I agree @HatStickBoots, just seen your post.

I wonder if we can expect them to move shortly. I mean, it MUST be evident to Sal that the whole Wellness Retreat thing isn't going to be a goer, so they don't need to have that whole place now.

She dared to identify herself with the partners of those who do … writing about how she copes, supports and nurses Moth in the books. There is nothing she preaches that is new but when she talked about saving Moth, curing Moth by refusing to listen to medical advice, this is an insult.

As someone who has been doing 24/7 care for a bedbound DH for years now, you are absolutely right @HatStickBoots and this is a particular irritant for me. One thing you learn very early on is that you need to work with all medical services involved, yes advocate as needed and don't be afraid to disagree (reasonably) but her whole way of dealing with it, the 'walk' in the first place (although it was far from as described) the lack of meds, not actually doing anything constructive when he was (apparently) showing signs of serious illness on the walk, eg a high temperature and feeling desperately unwell.

OK, we know most of it is malarkey and didn't happen like that, but to claim to be a 'healer' of any sort when her published actions reek of irresponsible neglect is indeed sickening.

ETA and oh, heading North like a migratory bird (etc) when his health is meant to have taken a turn for the worse. Florence Nightingsal, indeed.

Years ago - so details are somewhat blurred - I came across a publication which described a series of events, stated to be absolutely true. This was confirmed in the preface, but with a note added to the effect that the timeline had been shortened - so as not to bore the reader i.e. with months and months of blank pages, where nothing worthy of note occurred. This seemed to me a perfectly acceptable reason to use "artistic licence" or whatever the terminology is.

@UpfromSomerset : was that Sir Roger Bannister's autobuography, where he said that he had run a mile (and that he did it in four minutes)?

@Uricon2 heading North like a migratory bird

If I ever see this on a published book in the Nature section I think I will finally lose the will myself ...😱

A migratory 💩
(Rhymes with bird)

Sorry - a bit mean! Couldn’t resist.

i agree with those who posted before about a possible way forward could be for SalRay to write about the impact of all of this on her and how walking and nature healed HER…

Oh yes, but she came to the SW for that unfortunately and did the worst damage I've ever heard of to the delicate ecosystem of "the Sacred Path".

@Uricon2i take your celebrity impersonations and raise you being able to talk backwards (harking back to useless party tricks). Like completely backwards.... E.g. srelbboc pu edam fo daol a si htap tlas eht. No idea why I can do it, and it serves no purpose whatsoever other than to amaze drunk people with the speed I can flip entire sentences. Anyway, back to the serious stuff. Firstly, is there a reason that this was crowd funded when (I assume) SW could afford it? A Journal by The Gigspanner Big Band and Raynor Winn — Kickstarter share.google/pA3zlcbU60pIvHSOD Saltlines: A Journal by The Gigspanner Big Band and Raynor Winn — Kickstarter share.google/pA3zlcbU60pIvHSOD . Also, the whole message in SP and the thought of SW setting up a wellness retreat suddenly made me think of this https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/nov/22/free-birth-society-linked-to-babies-deaths-investigation . My science brain is very very sceptical of wellness-based money making, especially if it comes alongside criticism of modern medicine. Bit of an extreme conparison, but I suppose it's not out of the realms of possibility that sufferers of CBD may have been encouraged to ditch a medicine based route and take up walking after reading the SP. I welcome any counter arguments as I have my sciencey biases ❤️

As it's New Year, I decided to set myself a life ambition/challenge, it won't be for a long time but I've always been fascinated by what is called ' The Great Escape' of Charles II, where he went on the run after the Battle of Worcester and spent some weeks evading capture, including in/near some of my ancestral home villages. He dressed as a peasant, pretended to be a servant, lopped off his cavalier curls, hid in priest holes and had many incredibly close calls before making it to a boat and across to France. He was aided by some very humble people and never forgot the risks they took for him.

The circuitous route he took is now called 'The Monarch's Way' and one day I'm going to do it. It's over 600 miles... (I promise that no fudge will be stolen, reputations defamed, outrageous lies told and I plan on staying in nice places on the way and doing it in bits, probably)

Your description of that route is inspiring. Perhaps SW will do it this weekend and write a true book about it

@Uricon2 Didn’t he climb into a tree and hide there at one point? I read a couple of accounts of this - can’t remember who the authors were, though :)

@Uricon2 Then you will come to the SWCP - and put a few ammonites in your backpack?

'To Catch a King' by Charles Spencer is worth a read. He had access, through relatives, to various unpublished papers about it all.