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

Tried listening to the 3rd podcast. I’ve subscribed to a free 3 day Observer trial but it won’t let me play the podcast. It must be a glitch.

Same - this is so frustrating!

I think what struck me most in that first episode was CH emphasising how much of a shoestring the Hemmings' estate agency operated on, and how Ros's tiny NT salary was sometimes used to pay their PT staff -- I mean, £67k is a huge amount of money in 2026, but in the context of a small, working-class town in 2008, where wages are low, and there's just not much to go around, it looms considerably larger.

Go in via the link shared by @DisappointedReader above -- that's all that's worked for me. (Thanks again, @DisappointedReader ! I have a tiresome routine task to do this morning, so it's great to have something to listen to.)

I subscribed to the Observer & have listened to all six available episodes. They are brilliant. Lots of extra details to delight the charabanc & an amazing cliffhanger at the end of episode six. I’m eagerly awaiting episode 7.

I won't spoiler, but episode 3 has some fascinating new stuff re Bill Cole and Haye Farm.

Episode 2
Unfortunately I don't think it was made clear at one point that some of the research and information being talked about came from these threads.

So I will say it: credit where credit is due to those many posters and thank you for your individual and collaborative posts.

According to the T+CS on observer.co.uk if I subscribe to the observer directly (rather than on apple podcasts) then I can only listen via the website and the observer app, and not via apple podcasts.
Can anyone confirm if this is true?

I listened to ep1 this morning. Not really a spoiler:

Outrageous that while Ros Hemmings was supporting her household on her NT wage, S&T were treating themselves to brand new Landrover Discoveries (so much for the “eco warrior”), moleskin trousers and Aran jumpers to garden in, and chateaux in France which they swanked about at work. “Guess what I did last night? Bought a chateau in France!” It’s vile.

Awaiting the next episodes with rage, disgust, horror and actually, some residual anger at those who refuse to look at what these two have done, because they like the books. It’s not just that they were thieves and spent the money on luxuries while their actions were denying the people who had been so good to them the most basic peace of mind and financial security. It’s that they built relationships in order to exploit them. It’s like relationship scammers or domestic abusers, I think preying on those close to you and who trust you is worse by an order of magnitude than stealing from strangers (which itself is gross).

You're so right about the Landrover. That really stood out for me as brass neckery of the highest order (in no way could it count as a necessary purchase for people saying they're struggling with day to day costs, even if the stealing were in any way ok!) and highlights the eco-warrior hypocrisy.

SPOILER - some may be female but we don't have kids (apart from fur babies)!

But one instance of deceit doesn't make us as deceitful as the Winns!

To me this just confirms they were both always in this together. There’s no way they could afford all the luxuries on Tim’s NT low paid gardening job and Sallys part time bookkeeping! It also explains why their farmhouse was so heavily mortgaged. Disgusting pair, the more I learn about them the more disgusted and angry I feel 😡

No, I just meant I had always assumed the posters on these Salt Path threads were all female!

I know perfectly well that a significant proportion of posters on Mn don't have children. I was happily childfree myself till I was 40, though I only joined Mn while pregnant on my midwife's advice. (I'm not from the UK, though I had my DS while living in London, which may have been why it wasn't on my radar.)

ETA Sorry, that wasn't very clear. CH identifies a poster on these threads, who also emailed her on an almost daily basis at one point as a man, who speaks in the second episode. I mean, I know perfectly well there are male posters on Mn. I just didn't think there were male regulars on these threads.

The hurt the Walkers have caused is palpable all in the episodes: from strangers with CBD, to Bill Coles who cared about them and let them into his life, to friends like the Hemmings and their own family and parents. It’s horrible. Then there were those also drawn into it like Issacs and Anderson who must’ve been horrified when Chloe’s expose broke last summer Rick Stein. Fearne Cotton. And so many others. What a trail of destruction for no other reason than it seems they like nice things and wanted a lifestyle beyond their means.
Penguin surely comment now this podcast has aired. The podcast is utterly forensic.

Have just listened to the first episode...thank you for the link @DisappointedReader!

That point about Timmoth telling Cooper in 2011(?) that he was suffering from a degenerative disease is incredibly telling. Imo it's further evidence that they always intended to get a proper 'diagnosis' of this kind to garner sympathy/absolve them of any wrong doing further down the line...and of course it's not necessarily the first time they had employed such tricks!

It is incredible how much money this pathological kleptomaniac partnered with a pathological hypochondriac have managed to squirrel away - and remember they are still doing just that.

I remember flagging up that I think he gave up working when they would have been coming up to contributions for the first child's university grant. But, of course, their declared income was too low. Likewise the daughter's grant and then Tim's. The money they have ripped-off the country, readers, film goers, literary festival attenders, and so on and so forth .....

That's interesting because although I'm a grandfather and stated so in my first post, I've only emailed Our Chloe once - after the Observer made a meeting re. TSP available via "Zoom".
Early googling of TSP/Raynor Winn etc. came up with this thread, and the message was clear that I had to sign up in order to comment. So I did!

I remember you telling us you were a grandad @UpfromSomerset, we have a few men posting very regularly.

Well, presumably she's talking about someone else? He was named and appeared under his own name on the podcast in episode 2.

Yes - Timmoth telling Cooper he had a degenerative disease before Salray later claimed he was diagnosed (immediately before eviction, mid-2013).
That's a biggie. I know in the documentary a family member said something like, "he was always saying he was ill", but this really stood out to me as suggesting that perhaps they were aiming towards a diagnosis of something like CBD for years.

Maybe he's the lonely lorry driver in a lay by somewhere in Europe ... and that's not really you? 😉

Episode 5

Heartbreaking, hearing the voice of “Cecile” at the moment when Chloe first contacted her: the relief and distress…

Mixed emotions must be a big thing for the family - it is very sad for them.

How did you get past the 1st 2 episodes, please?

From episode 1, the land rover, I thought it was strange in the salt path film, when they arrived back at the Welsh house after the court hearing, they were driving a land rover, I don't remember us ever discussing what vehicle they had, maybe talk about Sally abandoning a car when she ran off?

Very good observation @AllFrothNoMoth, paying Sally to do the job and her embezzling his money, not doing the job she was paid to do, an additional theft, it's adding insult to injury.
You are right @BeaveringBrandy, you can hear the emotions in people's voices, very upsetting for many people.

I subscribed to the Observer and went in via the link provided by @DisappointedReader earlier. I since found the other episodes on the Observer app but seem to have lost them again!