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

Yes, I think that I certainly explained away a lot of the odder things to myself as 'Well, some people don't have much family' and 'Well, if they were running a fullscale farm and a homestay business somewhere really remote, they'd probably have ended up becoming fairly insular because they were so busy'.

(This was before it was clear that there was never a 'farm', there was one acre with a few sheep and chickens, and that there were rather grubbier reasons why (1) the Walkers were not popular locally and (2) didn't have an untroubled relationship with either of their families.)

Also, I write fiction, and one of the oddities of non-fiction is that it can incorporate events and strangenesses and coincidences that the reader just wouldn't buy in fiction. Real people frequently behave in ways that a well-rounded, coherent fictional character would not, because the author is aware that too much oddity will make a reader stop suspending their disbelief.

Suspension of disbelief is an interesting thing to think of in relation to TSP.

All of us who read it, even with some misgivings, before the first Observer story, clearly suspended our disbelief.

I definitely thought 'Hmm, a bit odd' about the reasons for losing the house, enough to do some Googling, and note that 'Raynor Winn' didn't appear to exist before TSP was announced. I definitely also thought there was a curious absence of family and friends stepping in, even as a stopgap, when they were made homeless, but it seemed possible there were unspoken reasons for family estrangement, and that the Walkers were just loners with no one to turn to. I noted SW's remarkable unpleasantness about so many people in TSP, but dismissed it as a bravely unedited depiction of her own bitterness at being kicked around by Fate.

But I still suspended my disbelief about most of it, which seems mad in restrospect, except that I was in good company.

Oh yes, the surprise radio with batteries. Forgot that one. You are prob right, 8kg is a stretch even if getting supplies/food dropped off by son intermittently.

<waves from one fiction author to another>

I agree, my editor would have stamped on me if I'd written a book so rammed with self-pity and negativity towards other people!

Got to wonder what was actually inside the bags! Maybe just newspaper to bulk them out for what could be mistaken as a photoshoot.

If TSP was ever to appear in a Monty Python sketch, it might go something along the following lines:

So, apart from the fact that:

• they didn't lose their house after a business investment with a lifelong friend went wrong
• they weren't given 7 days to vacate their house before it was repossessed
• In the same week Moth didn't receive a diagnosis of a terminal neurological disease called CBD with possibly only a couple of years left to live
• they weren't sheltering in a cupboard beneath the stairs as the bailiffs hammered on the door
• they didn't come up with the idea of walking the SWCP after seeing a copy of 500 Mile Walkies in a packing case just before they walked out of the door of their house past the bailiffs
• they always had the offer of somewhere to stay when they finished the walk
• they never walked all 630 miles of the SWCP in 18 months
• they weren't surviving off working tax credits of as little as £30pw
• most of the encounters described in TSP were either grossly exaggerated or entirely fabricated
• they were never shunned by passers by on SWCP for being homeless
• they were never mistaken for the poet Simon Armitage
• TSP was never written purely as an aide memoire for Moth
• TSP wasn't Raynor Winn's first attempt to write a book
• Moth never made a miraculous recovery from a life threatening illness by walking the SWCP

WHAT EXACTLY IS YOUR PROBLEM WITH TSP?

@SimonArmpit If TSP was ever to appear in a Monty Python sketch...

there was never a dead sheep (or a dead parrot)

@OnlyAfterwards But I still suspended my disbelief about most of it, which seems mad in retrospect, except that I was in good company.

I find it fascinating that the story was believed. I think that here are some very interesting examinations from two of you.

I thought it sounded silly because he was still around so long after they said he had two years to live. I don't think people are mugs, though, as I felt bad for my scepticism. This is why I believe the whole web, created by the Walkers, has messed people up.

Delurking (armed with fudge bars stolen from DH's Christmas selection box stash, eagerly awaiting the latest updates from Our Chloe) to say I've been reading and cheering you all along since the first thread and have just succeeded at the first attempt to a) register with the Observer and b) book a digital ticket for tomorrow night's Salt Path event. Hope anyone still struggling to do so, has success too!

The book, being not my genre of reading matter, had passed me by - although I'd seen it prominently displayed in many a book shop over the years - till the revelations in July. At which point I grabbed myself a - charity shop - copy (awful!) and managed to sit through the mind-numbingly boring film (on YouTube), just to see whether it was as obviously a load of bull as was being suggested. It was - badly written and full of plot holes, imo.

When the most recent claims were revealed in December I was gobsmacked all over again, but by now I was ready to believe almost anything of the ghastly RayMoth!

However, as with so many here, what I can't believe, is the sheer brass neck of them both - to think they could treat people (family and employers) the way they did, write about it for millions to read and expect no questions to be asked by those that knew them of old!

My personal interest is the repossession of Pen y Maes and the whole homeless/nowhere to go/no money coming in except a few meagre £££ in benefits scenario. Not to mention the 'why the long distance walk when faced with losing everything?' question...I mean, there's running away from your problems, but walking 630 miles with - supposedly - no prospects/real goals in sight, does seem a blooming odd choice to me...obviously we're all different, but just saying!

Back in 2007, we had a lovely but way too large house on the south coast of England that was fairly heavily mortgaged. DH had some financial issues (nothing like RayMoth's, he'd just overspent a bit and despite working like a trojan in his desk based design job - coincidentally he was trained as a plasterer in his youth by a Master Plasterer relative! - was secretly struggling with paying the bills, as typical bloke, he omitted to share this with me) which ultimately resulted in firstly him attempting to take his own life (thank god he wasn't successful) and secondly for us to come quite close to repossession.

As soon as he was back on his feet, we ploughed every waking moment into offloading our admittedly vast quantities of 'stuff' to raise the money to get ourselves out of this hole (no raffling of houses/writing books with partially Welsh titles took place!) and of course to sell the house, which fortunately we'd not long finished renovating (DIY - we're definitely not RayMoth...honestly!)

I was already running a small online business selling vintage clothing - no parent's wedding dresses involved - but it's testimony to how much furniture/decorative bits we'd actually filled our home with, that once I'd started listing/selling all our own stuff, eBay declared us Powersellers and a business. We raised thousands in a few months which all helped.

Long story short, unlike the Walkers, we weren't greedy and sold our house pretty quickly for a reasonable price. We paid off our - two - mortgages and were extremely fortunate to still have around 400k equity left over, so were able to buy somewhere smaller in a less expensive location. Eighteen years later, I'm proud to admit we're still mortgage-free - having moved several times, we've never borrowed another penny!

My point really is that, imo, RayMoth didn't try hard enough to extricate themselves from the repo mess they got themselves into, instead launching into what on the surface appears to have been a hare-brained scheme to go for a long distance walk, although obviously the idea of book no2 was already in their minds. As - and I acknowledge again that not everybody reacts the same way - if that had been us, reacting to our potential repossession/DH's brush with death (albeit at his own hand), walking 630 miles would've been the very last thing on our minds...we'd have knuckled down and sold all our possessions/got extra jobs before thinking - selfishly - about ourselves. Moreover, we have a DS who was about 17 at the time and - although he, similar I guess to RayMoth's two DC, was soon heading off to uni - we couldn't have just announced we were going walking without so much as a thought for his feelings!

Phew...as you were and sorry for the essay! Hope there's a bit of space left on the charabanc for an interested interloper with pockets full of filched fudge?!

Fascinating indeed!
When the truth came out I looked up the reviews on Amazon. If I remember, and have also interpreted the data correctly, it appeared that out of 4k reviews, 80% of these had awarded 5 stars and 10% 4 stars. So just 10% of the reviews submitted were of 3 stars or less - pretty negative in fact. And reading these proved to be an eye-opener, with comments along the lines of "the story seemed a bit off" or "didn't ring true". For my part, I admit to wanting the TSP story to be true, as I had read it as non-fiction. Discovering that I had been taken in by all the hype and the publisher's assurances was slightly irritating, but reading the glowing reviews still being submitted well after publication of Chloe H's article last summer made me despair!

[Apologies if this has been shared before but I just came across it]

This interview with Jason Isaacs on the Kermode & Mayo podcast is extraordinarily staggering, insofar we hear the foundations of the "story" we so often hear from SalRay but through a third party who has been well and truely duped. He put his complete faith in it as a true-to-life memoir. There's a lot to unpick.

But of note, through Jason, possibly via what they told him, it has grown legs. Apparently they were indeed farmers. And Moth had lost the ability to read, until during the walk he miraculously regains it. What the actual...? It's appalling and galling listening in the knowledge of what has since been exposed. And to think the Walkers knew it was a pack of lies to let JI churn out their fake sob story. Hoodwinked doesn't cover it. I feel sorry for how he must feel played. I'd feel even sadder if he continues to believe the story.

Starts around the 33:40 mark

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5lGKIHRFMMKXe80rl1xkIB

I think when it comes to Amazon reviews, people aren't reviewing the book per se, they are reviewing their experience of reading the book. Most readers aren't literary critics, so they aren't going through looking for mistakes or unlikely scenarios, they are just reviewing the book subjectively through their life lens. So even the most dreadful books can have a lot of very positive reviews if a lot of people have enjoyed or got something out of reading it. And I expect a lot of readers enjoyed 'visiting' the SWCP and the 'adventures' of Ray and Moth, without sitting down and thinking 'how likely is it that any of this REALLY happened?'

@LibertyLily thanks for your very interesting post. It demonstrates that with commonsense, facing your problems, hard work (and a lack of criminality) even hard situations can be turned around. Welcome aboard!

I think when it comes to Amazon reviews, people aren't reviewing the book per se, they are reviewing their experience of reading the book.

A really excellent point @Vroomfondleswaistcoat . It played into the zeitgeist in uncertain financial times. I'm sure many who read it were rattled by this 'naice' couple ending up 'homeless' with one of them 'very ill' and then the Happy Ending of course, enhanced as it is by a best selling book.

Having had 2 very ill DHs (over decades) I think what first gave me pause was the lack of likelihood that in such a situation I wouldn't fight like Liam Neeson in Taken to make sure that they at least had a roof over their heads, because I know how impossible it would have been without one.

And this is another thing that gives me pause, that, unless there's been a purchase we know nothing about and where they aren't currently living, they are still renting. Surely making a sound and permanent home base that can't be taken away at any moment would be a prime concern if Tim really is as ill as Sal keeps saying?

@AllFrothNoMoth when I thought it couldn’t get any worse or my opinion of them even lower…
@LibertyLily I echo @Uricon2 , well done for having the strength, patience and hard work to see you through. I know how much time and effort is required to sell possessions on eBay. You’ve done amazingly well!

I would add the 8 kg to the (lengthening) list of 'Things about TSP which are completely fictional.'

There are some details I feel entirely certain never had the smallest basis in reality.

Which pale into insignificance when you set them alongside 'We lost our home because of us trying to buy my way of out a likely prison sentence, and TW had no diagnosis, far less a terminal one, when we walked -- a bit, not as much as claimed, or when claimed', obviously, but I'd be really interested to hear whether the people who'd booked their barn conversion really got complete refunds of their deposits from the almost-indigent Walkers, as claimed in TSP (hmm), and whether those few who bought 'raffle tickets' for the house from Gangani were likewise compensated when the raffle didn't go ahead, as claimed in SW's statement.

I'm pretty certain that someone with a record of theft of large sums of money from people they actually knew and who trusted them would have no compunction about keeping the money of total strangers.

I agree @Vroomfondleswaistcoat . You’d think it would be a priority for them, a safe and permanent home. In her books, she seemed to be pining for a home of their own and giving that as an excuse to leave Bill Haye’s cider farm….. along with Moth not being able to plan beyond Christmas. She lamented that they couldn’t get attached because it wasn’t theirs and could be cruelly taken away. Even that had to be twisted into something it wasn’t and Bill becoming dislikable so that they could justify their actions to the reader.
They knew Moth wasn’t terminally ill and so she had no guilt about pushing him into an impulsive and impossible situation to ‘walk’ the SWCP even though that’s how she wrote it. The posed photos look like happy people on holiday, or brass-necked liars who have no conscience.

Yes, it's more 'How this book made me feel'. Which given how crammed with negativity towards others it is, is really interesting in terms of just how warm and fuzzy and inspired TSP seems to have made many of its readers feel.

My theory has always been that a lot of its readers were not habitual readers, and were probably bringing a totally unprejudiced and unsuspicious cast of mind to it, as well as not having much basis for comparison to other books in similar genres. They really felt they had been allowed to know the Walkers.

And that SW not being much of a writer actually helped the book for those readers, because the writing is so ordinary and the Walkers are presented as so ordinary.

It probably made it more relatable than walking/cycling/travel memoir books like those by adventurers like Dervla Murphy (cycled to India from Ireland, shot wolves etc) or Patrick Leigh Fermor (slept in dosshouses and palazzi, hobnobbed with contessas and shepherds, astonishing prose).

And some of the reviews posted since the Observer stories which take no account of the allegations have the air of people defending a friend that someone has said something bitchy about.

Yes, the writing style did work in her favour. Reading it, I was certainly impressed by the excitement and impulsiveness of the decisions made. I was reading somebody’s (albeit fictional) thoughts who was the opposite of me and who made me step into her shoes. I didn’t question the decision to force a terminally ill and disabled man to walk and camp on TSWCP because I knew it had healed him. Every interview and bit of blurb had already told me this. So, I was reading it as intended and already knowing that this irrational sounding woman had made the best decision of their life.

🫠

Well, that has made me understand a bit better now. I couldn't fathom why people were just cool about him still being around - because the number of years was quite significant by then. I say, I didn't read the book but I was aware of the basics and that they had settled down here. What irritated me was that she was always the go-to for anything the national papers wanted to run about the West Country - and she would just come out with trite recommendations, etc.

I think back along I described them as 'books for people who don't read' (not you well-read lot, obviously).

@LibertyLily b) book a digital ticket for tomorrow night's Salt Path event. Hope anyone still struggling to do so, has success too!

Nope, still not working for me. What search engine do you use?

But also the creativity of an accomplished confidence trickster.

I only heard of her when her last book was being released, because I happened to read an interview in a local magazine. I was intrigued and sought the books after that 😑 Yes she certainly was the ‘go to’ for everything. Aaaaarggh!!! Why??

Just discovered by sharing more of our Scam Path musings that DH actually met Patrick Leigh Femor. My excitement was a bit squashed when in answer to 'What was he like?' I got 'Much as you'd expect really' and ' I don't know, he was alright'.

If anyone has thumbscrews to deal with this gnomic nonsense, it would be helpful!