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

Afraid I read TWS mainly because I hoped I might find out why "Moth" was so-called. But the only clue (as I mistakenly thought) was the reference to "Mothman BSc" if I remember correctly. TWS compared to TSP was a huge disappointment, particularly concluding with the Iceland trip which stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb!
Before I could tackle "Landlines" my DW informed me she had dropped it off, along with TWS, at a local charity shop. Huge sigh of relief from us both.

I am afraid that I have to admit to having known a fair number of hipster-types in the past. LOTS of Timothys became Moth in that population sample, presumably because 'Tim' was too mainstream and normal and they wanted to stand out and be original.

All of them were so original...

When my kids were growing up we were extremely poor (single parent, five kids, no money, no help and absent dad who didn't contribute). Rented house. And when my mum died and left me some money I took that, maxed out two credit cards and bought the tiniest little house (the only thing I could afford) rather than live with that day-to-day risk of the landlords deciding to sell up or take the house back.

I will never forget that stress every time I opened the front door to my landlord, wondering whether this was going to be the time I got notice to leave.

And this is why I cannot get my head around Sal and Tim not buying themselves a nice little place in the country somewhere. That security is priceless.

I know a couple of English Timothys-known-as-Moth, both in their 20s and 30s, but I think it was just a family nickname in both cases, with no hipster or ecowarrior credentials whatsoever. (Nor any back catalogue in literary scams, fake terminal illnesses etc. That I know of, anyway...)

@CelestialCandyfloss -- I think you can see that she struggled to write TWS with no 'these two bad things that happened to us, so we did a crazy thing because we're free spirits' narrative.

So it's this weird fractured hodgepodge of 'having a minor nervous breakdown in Polruan because Moth is getting worse again', her mother's deathbed, childhood reminiscences, 'How met my cool blond ecowhatsit as he seductively dunked a Mars bar', the writing and publication of TSP, being offered the cider farm tenancy, a bit of guff about rewilding in which TW is depicted as having apparently previously run a commercial farm in the past, and the weirdly tacked-on Icelandic walk with Dave and Julie.

Landlines attempts to go back to the 'Moth is dying, so we go on a long walk to save him' formula of TSP, but despite trying very hard to continue to position the Walkers as underdogs (Moth is at death's door, SW's boots don't fit, the army is doing manoeuvres on the route, a cafe won't serve them inside, they get stuck on a waterfall), it's very obviously a tale of two fairly privileged people who are able to take an extended walking holiday, using GPS, taxis, a car collection service and hotels, buying touring bicycles, ordering replacement stoves to be delivered to a hotel ahead of them on their route etc etc.)

Probably most notable for the fact that TW is depicted as actively dying at the start, despite spending his days active and outdoors tending the cider orchards, but is magically cured by the 1000-mile walk to the point where his DAT scan is 'lit up like a Christmas tree' compared to the abnormally dark one before the walk. At the same time as TW was telling Bill Cole the doctors have told him not to make plans for after Christmas.

Could a reason for them not buying be that, until recently, they still owed the original debt plus interest?

According to the recent Observer article:

The creditors say that, prior to The Observer’s initial investigation, they had been unable to locate the Walkers because they were using the aliases Raynor and Moth Winn, and have since requested and received payment for the loan.

So before this, even if they bought outright with no mortgage, wouldn't they have run the risk of another repossession if the creditors had somehow caught up with them? Of course, a simple solution for them in this scenario would have been to pay the debt. Now that they have paid it, maybe they will finally buy?

Just a thought to try to explain the inexplicable!

I think they have had more than enough to buy a little cottage somewhere outright and STILL have kept enough money to pay off their creditors (if any of them could find them). They seem to have a taste for the high life if accounts of the place they are renting are to go by, but a small place somewhere in Scotland or on the Welsh coast (so nicely away from prying eyes) wouldn't even touch the sides of what they've earned.

@SimonArmpityou asked about the reason for going to uni earlier. I've attached the relevent parts of the book that cover this. I remember this being the one thing that made me question them as individuals. I distinctly remember thinking that applying for uni was just a way of getting some money and cheap accommodation. I did actually miss remember it and thought he was applying for teaching. I was slightly annoyed at the time because so many people apply to qualify as a teacher (to get the really good bursary), but then leave straight after when they realise the first year as a teacher pays less. Although, the issue here is the system. Governments throw loads of money at getting people in to teaching but not to keep experienced teachers in the profession. Basically, I assumed TW was cheating the funding system.

Yes, but whether they wanted to part with a huge sum of money to pay the debt is the question. Are they of the ilk who would rather rent and hide than pay off a huge debt they ran from?

I agree. This was yet another aspect of the book that one side of my brain questioned while the other said “shhhhh” and threw a blanket over it because it was so forthrightly hammered home as a True Story and with so much weight from reviews and trusted sources to back that up. I believe we are still not supposed to be questioning these things as the slightest amount of curiosity gets classically mis-labelled as “vitriol” and the smoke and mirrors start puffing about. But yes, how unrealistic was that? Even a basic move involves a lot of clearing and throwing away of clutter and memories that are “outgrown” but still have an emotional attachment. I knew how my children would have been under TSP circumstances (as portrayed in the book) and it was light years away from the actions of the Raynor Winn children, grown they may be, but it’s a major loss and shift for the whole family. Children move out to go to uni or to rent elsewhere independently but “home” is still a place they want to come back to for a long time. I think? I also thought of Ray and Moth as being the carefree, wild spirited, adventurous and perhaps unreliable parents that have children who’ve learned to be self sufficient because of that. Learning the hard way that Mum and Dad aren’t a safety net. I also thought that maybe this part was too traumatic for the author to write about… and yet she was so capable of writing about the trauma of Moth’s “diagnosis”. Perhaps the fake trauma is easy to write about but the real trauma that her children very much must have experienced, is something she cannot touch?

“Fortunately our credit history didn’t prevent us from receiving the reliable fixed income it would provide.” ???
Did they lie on the application forms??

No, it is because credit history is not considered for student loans, i guess because repayments are automatic once earning goes above a threshold. What are the odds that Tim still has an unpaid loan (funded by the government. i.e. taxpayers).?

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat They seem to have a taste for the high life if accounts of the place they are renting are to go by

I have pondered this recently. There is some precedent, regarding what you have suggested, for female authors who have taken up residence in Cornwall.

Daphne du Maurier was completely obsessed with Menabilly (Rebecca's Manderley). She took the opportunity to rent it, during WWII, but was never able to take possession of it. When the Rashleighs eventually moved back in they gave her a lease on another of their grand houses. But she adored Menabilly and in later life was found wandering the grounds. For all her money she could never 'buy in' to that sense of place and belonging to Cornish 'nobility'.

For all the eco-warrior witterings, I have wondered if their sense of entitlement may mean that the Walkers will only now settle for something grand.

In fairness, he does say he's going to train as a teacher to pass on all his valuable skills...?

I notice that their company Four Hares Ltd is still active but there is considerably less in the kitty for 2025 than there was for the previous year. As he is one of the directors, should he not pay back a loan with money from his company?

Only if he pays himself a wage above the threshold.

In TSP ch 18 Tim moots the idea of teacher training. Seems an odd choice for someone with CBD. Teaching is full on and the teaching practice alone would be gruelling.

Yes, but by TWS his (alleged) failing memory give them a reason to change that plan.

Or it could go the other way, with him interjecting that he is even more unwell, a la Bill Coles.

The Observer have just sent this so I guess it’s ok to share it here with my MN friends!

It’s almost time! We’re looking forward to seeing you in a few hours for ‘The Real Salt Path Story’ at 18:30.
Here's the all-important Zoom link that you’ll need to join: https://observer-co-uk.zoom.us/j/89219487781

It’s not too late to invite a friend, just share the Zoom link with them and they can come too.

Thank you for inviting a friend - that seems to have gone through for me. We'll see what happens later ....

The debt still exists but because it is way out of time there is nothing the creditors can do about it. They had six years to enforce legal action & that has long passed.

It's more the psychology of not buying that interests me. Having a secure, unequivocal base that couldn't be taken away would seem to me to be the FIRST thing that someone with a long-term illness who has already lost one home would do. They could then quibble with any creditors who appeared out of the woodwork - although they wouldn't be any more findable with a permanent home than they are currently.

And wouldn't Moth want to know that, in the (increasingly vanishingly unlikely) event of his incipient death, Sal had a lovely home that they had had a chance to establish together?

With property ownership comes responsibility and expenses for upkeep etc. By renting they can live like kings and enjoy privacy, live close to the SWCP as well as being close to their two children (and any grandchildren that may appear on the scene) and not have to worry about the upkeep of the property. I just don't see them buying a small cottage in Wales or a remote part of Scotland.

I think a couple of threads ago renting v buying was discussed and it was posited that if their royalties and other income is as thought, they can rent the palatial pad in Cornwall while preserving capital. I can see why they might do that, money being easier to move offshore if needed than property.

Not a way I would want to live especially after a period of 'homelessness', but I don't think their minds work in the same way as most of us. They've got used to living close to the wind and I think probably have their own peculiar, dishonest siege mentality as a result.

It always has surprised me that (in their own words) the one who was 'dying' studied for the future whilst the one that was not, sat at home, with 'no work experience' (according to TWS) and presumably few qualifications.