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

Ep. 6
I thought this would be the case. 'Anne' says about Sal:

Her first job at the Burton law court ended abruptly.

I've come across a couple of grifters before who were joined at the hip like SW and Tim. I think they feed off each other's deep insecurities and failings and become very dependent on each other. They likely justify their behaviour together turning inwards and accusing the outside world of conspiring against them. The grifters I knew were spectacular in their deceit. They operate at a wholly different moral level to the rest of us.

@DoubtfulCat - did he really have a diagnosis of Parkinsons or is that just more handwavium to distract attention? Because he's doing pretty well to still be fit and healthy now if it WAS Parkinsons. I might have had some grudging sympathy for them if I thought she'd done what she did to support him and shore the pair of them up against a future of suffering (I have a friend whose husband has Parkinsons and it's not nice), but she doesn't ever seem to have spent one single penny on for example, private diagnosis and/or treatment, secure adapted housing...

SPOILER EP6

Anne, who’s “Polly”, says this about them:

“She idolises him?

Oh yeah.

Is that reciprocated?

Do you think Tim loves her or needs her? What's the other half of the equation?

Tim obviously dotes on her, but it's a very flamboyant returned love, almost over the top. But Sally is Tim's protector, so Tim can create the persona he's created.

What is that persona?

“That persona is the bandana wearing turned up collar, brown boots, slightly worn jeans, hand on heart, turned up hair, attitude of, you know, bumbling through life. And Sally facilitates that. You know, Sally can be on her knees totally and utterly financially and Tim will sit in the corner polishing his boots.

But there's the other side of that which Tim must surely have been aware that there was money coming in from somewhere because surely he must have known over the hundred and something thousand pounds that there's money coming in. And it's a symbiotic relationship that not necessarily brings out the worst in one another, but it's created them into the situation they're in now.”

Anne has a theory that when their finances hit the fan, perhaps when they lost their investment, all Sally cared about was, what's the phrase she used in her email? Holding Tim out of it and trying to keep some of the real Tim alive.

“It's like he has no comprehension of money. He has no comprehension of the fact that it has to actually come from somewhere and there isn't always somebody with a safety net to make it right. It would be Sally trying to make the world right for the kids and Sally trying to make the world right for Tim, but making it right to a level and a standard in which Tim would want it, even if that meant putting herself out there and fundamentally doing illegal stuff.”

From The Walkers: The real Salt Path | Tortoise Investigates: The Letters | The Walkers Ep6, 12 Jan 2026
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-walkers-the-real-salt-path-tortoise-investigates/id1590561275?i=1000744817004&r=2468
This material may be protected by copyright.

(My bold- this is what we have been saying all along, isn’t it!)

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat yes the latter, I imagine. I don’t believe any concrete, provable diagnosis exists in any health record for Tim. Even the 2015 letter isn’t giving a dx, it’s saying the consultant is trying to make sense of what he’s been told (and the atypical things could well be there as a result of being Made Up Shite).

So has it turned out that the sudden move to Wales (sold up, found a place and moved within a few weeks) really wasn't because a child had left the garden?

And has Chloe found out whether SW at least had a good employment record at the White House hotel?

I couldn't cope with listening to her and can't believe the publishers didn't insist she had some voice coaching first.

@Peladon no, and no. At least, those things haven’t been mentioned. It sounds as if Wales was where they could afford to buy when they lost half their capital.

Kids only mentioned in passing but they sounded as if they were pretty comfortable with their parents’ malingering and sponging off relatives.

I found it funny when she was on the podcast reading about their “long walk” but her speech impediment (which I honestly hadn’t spotted before) meant that because the phrase was in isolation I heard “wrong walk” and normally I wouldn’t laugh at a speech impediment but it was pretty ironic.

I think it likely refers to early investigations when Tim was seeking treatment and physical trauma was being ruled out. Parkinson's might have been suspected at some point, but not diagnosed. So Salray might have said Tim had Parkinson's at that time, because it had been mentioned possibly? it all depends on the time line as does most of what Sally says has happened.

Does Wikipedia accept Observer podcasts as a source? If so, the "Raynor Winn" page may have a lot of updating to be done.

Anyone want to make a bet on how long it is before Penguin finally remove "unflinchingly hinest" from their website? I'll go for 7 days

I don't gamble @Peladon, but apparently the CEO of PRH likes a flutter.

EPISODE 6

Or was the whole redundancy from the White House made up by Tim when he heard that Martyn needed a book-keeper?

I found the info from the 'confession' quite confusing. The Winns sold their house (now on record as Forest Row, Dunstall - I have looked on Google maps and it fits the book's description, long back garden, terraced, facing woodland) then Tim invested half their money, lost it and then they moved to Wales as it was all they could afford. So where were they living after Forest Row and before Wales?

Ep. 6

I remember us thinking they got the Dunstall house when they were quite young. I wonder if her job (not just her wage) at the court helped that?

So where were they living after Forest Row and before Wales? @RainyTuesdaysAndSunnyWednesdays
There was mention of a brother in North Wales

At the end of ep. 6 it says you can hear all 7 podcasts. But it doesn't say when you can hear 7?

I don't know @BeaveringBrandy, it's a shame Our Chloe hasn't let us know, is she up the back of the charabanc, or has she succumbed to the medicinal sloe gin ?

I've listened to all six episodes and am horrified. What a nasty pair of parasitic fantasists. The way they've blithely taken advantage of every kindness that's been shown them without a care in the world is breathtaking. The nephew's post was completely accurate, pathological liars leaving a trail of destruction behind them.

The worst episode for me was the one investigating the CBD claims. The specialist seemed quite definite that whatever he may have is NOT cbd and had no qualms saying so. That poor man with actual CBD...

Surely they can't be allowed to get away with this? Surely PRH cannot maintain radio silence? The whole thing is vile.

Didn't she say something about she was busy till Tuesday as she had to get the last podcast episode done so wouldn't be available to do a Q&A till after that? So maybe it will be tomorrow or later this week?

It definitely says, listen all 7 episodes on Tuesday 13th on the site, but not what time 7 will be available.
We're not expecting her for a Q&A for a while.
Do you think Chloe is still putting episode 7 together, really last minute?

I think she did say when she was on here last week that she anticipated episode 7 might not be ready at the same time as the others.

Oh my goodness @OnlyAfterwards, Chloe will be under a huge amount of pressure, if it's being tweaked last minute, I remember her saying in her post that she had to get episode 7 over the line.

The old BBC article from 2004 that interviwed TW at the national trust garden said something about them initially renting in Criccieth? (or nearby) before buying Pen y maes. Whether we believe it is another matter. So many holes and inconsistencies in their stories. In one RW interview she said they chose Wales because they were on holiday and stuck in a traffic jam, so turned off the road and ended up in north Wales to finding the house. It's more like something that would happen in a children's picture book than anything real.

ETA - there is a big inconsistency in her investment story. In confession letter it was early 90s because that is when they sold Forest Row / bought Pen y Maes. It was also early 1990s in RW statement. The date is not mentioned in TSP but she wrote "the company with which the investment was made eventually failed."

So what is the inconsistency? The company of Cooper's that failed (searchable on companies house) was created in 1998! If that isn't enough, who in their right mind with 2 very young kids, with Salray training to be a law clerk, would sell up a house and sink half the money into a company investment that required waiting a year or 2 at least for a return? I think i know where my answer sits, and it lands on the rather large pile of "things that never happened but offered a vague excuse for our shady behaviour."

Listening now :)