Thread 23 : 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]

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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?

Thread 22:www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5470952-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?

Most recent:

• Salt Path: A Very British Scandal, available on Sky Documentaries and NOW TV, 15th December 2025
• ‘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
• Observer Newsroom: The Real Salt Path Story, Thursday 8th January 2026

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. For over 6 months we have done amazingly well together for 22 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 22,000 posts there are still new things to look out for on the path:
Podcast series (7 episodes) from The Observer's award-winning Investigative Journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou, 13th January 2026.
The Walkers: The real Salt Path | The Observer

After listening to some of The Walkers: The real Salt Path podcast episodes from The Observer today my thoughts are even more with the victims. I also believe that the publishers, agent and prizegivers must now act and be seen to act.

Please start each post with the podcast episode you are commenting on, for clarity and to help others avoid spoilers if they wish to do so. Many thanks.

As always, keep to the path, no saltiness, eat fudge and drink cider.

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 22 IS FULL

Interesting - if applying for a re-mortgage you would need proof of your employment, the salary plus…bank statements. And who do we know who spent 18 months faking her mother’s bank statements?

AdamAnt that they have done nothing wrong.

just my observation, but narcissist men do seem to wear shorts a lot, and I’m not sure what that’s about.

That is interesting, @LetsBeSensible, we have wondered how they were keeping borrowing, on their low wages. We didn't know Salray could forge bank statements then. I don't know about the shorts thing :)

Indeed! It's all making a lot of sense now!

I was also interested to hear from the niece in one of the podcasts that SW's sudden departure from her clerk's job at the local courts was an unwelcome shock to her mother and there was something shameful about it because it was never explained or discussed.

Maybe there was a perfectly legitimate explanation and her mother was just so very disappointed she'd left a good job that she couldn't bear to mention it.

But it was the fines department. In the 1980s. Lots of cash and cheques. Records were probably handwritten ledgers. I can't help thinking that SW's career of fraud and theft may have started there.

Very sorry my post was so brief earlier @BewilderingBrandy. I should have already left before then but delayed as long as I could and got straight in touch with Phoebe for you. I know just how important our privacy is to many of us.

I checked my messages as soon as I got home. On using names, Phoebe says she has quoted from some people who emailed her and sent them a note to ask if it's okay I use their full names. She will try to respond to everyone else to say they haven't needed to use their quotes (I understand most emails were quite similar) tomorrow @Anythingbutheadlands to allay any concerns.

ETA I understand the article is twice as long as it should be so will probably all have to be edited down quite a lot.

I don't recall seeing this interview posted previously. There are a few interestimg comments, eg about "Moth" and SW's parents, honesty, the cider farm, and paying the gas bills.

https://www.marshwoodvale.com/articles/2020/09/the-wild-silence/

This article has some very disbelieving comments at the end - made in 2023.

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/best-selling-author-terminally-ill-4486190?int_source=amp_continue_reading&int_medium=amp&int_campaign=continue_reading_button#amp-readmore-target

Yes, as I said, everyone I know who writes under a pen name does so because they have another name for another genre and they don't want to confuse readers. It's a perfectly legit reason for having a pen name.

I had one all ready to go when it looked like I might switch genres from Women's Fiction to Paranormal and I was going to use my middle name, with my brother's middle name as a last name - I think many of us tend to use 'family' names of one kind and another when we choose pen names.

(Although I had a couple of paranormals out, I didn't make the big switch so I didn't use my lined-up pen name, so I'm keeping it in case I ever need it to take a new identity and dodge the ever-increasing bills).

Apparently she didn't have a great reputation at school according to one contemporary!

Thank you for saying - you said that you passed that on and then one of our posters said that they had got an email and said they wanted to use their username. So thank you for that. We don't call ourselves an amazing mix of names for no reason!

I can remember reading this article (long before the scandal) and boy does it read differently now!
I take note of her publicised feelings towards her parents, her words are very strong indeed. Without doubt this made her feel entitled to take their money. Her parents were beaming in the wedding photo, not standing there with battle axe expressions and shotguns.
Her descriptions of her feelings for Moth always sound so obsessive and cloying, not just because he’s dying but it’s always been like that. He has his own version of a disease apparently. This whole article makes me feel green around the gills.

This has always been one of my strong leanings - that she was already like this. The court job then gave the perfect opportunity. I had wondered why no one from earlier had contacted Chloe - but then I heard how Chloe did not even use some of the relatives information until she had some evidence. It is possible that there is more from school, early jobs, but it is too far back to have proof.

For me, this is based on my own experience and I would think he was already established in his ways and together they were a lethal cocktail for those who became involved with them.

To add one more.

• the web archive that enabled scrutiny of removed articles, such as Rhys Davies' book review, the 2004 BBC piece on Tim, and the Gangani website.

@Peladon That artlcle makes me so angry. I got to this line.. 'when the electric bill comes through the door it just makes me smile, because I know I can actually pay it.”

and thought 'can, but probably aren't going to'.

Talking about what’s changed with her fame, she’s quoted as saying “The only real thing that’s changed is that when the electric bill comes through the door it just makes me smile, because I know I can actually pay it.”

My eyes don’t go far enough sideways to convey my feelings on this matter. Strong words are running through my mind about her as well, words I very rarely use.

ETA @Vroomfondleswaistcoat great minds!!

Great minds thinking alike, Doubtful.

The entire tone of that interview is so smug and 'what, l'il ole me? Famous?'

Every so often I just have to step away from all this because it makes me so angry... I'm taking my youngest DD out for coffee and cake this morning and I shall mash some crumbs into the plate to vent my spleen (but I won't let it put me off my cake, because that would be a step too far).

Just read this. Something that strikes me is when the author, following the bit about Moth being disliked, says RW writes with such honesty. It got me thinking. Did RW write these "honest" elements because she could get away with them (because parents were no longer alive) AND because they gave her the ability to hide behind such "unflinchingly honest" aspects of her life. What i am saying is that it is a very good way to convince people you are a truth teller and avoid any questions ever being raised about the veracity of other things, such as Tim's health. It is not dissimilar to the tactic she used in TSP about stealing fudge, which i have discussed before. Basically the concept seems to be "tell small lies that are made to appear to be unflinchingly honest aspects of personal life in order to hide far greater deceits."

And my response is the same as when you introduced this idea about the fudge - yes I can quite believe she tells small lies and enormous lies, steals small things and huge amounts.

The third element in this is : guilt. She says she felt guilty about taking the bus, instead of walking the path by the Taw/Torridge estuary. This really perplexed me and when I saw your fudge theory - it clicked. We are prompted to think oh not at all Ray you're doing an amazing thing we can't blame you for that small break from such a huge walk.

There are still die hard Sal fans who argue that it doesn't matter if some of the events in TSP have been altered, the key message of triumph over adversity, remains intact.

They argue that enough events in TSP did take place to validate the above message:

• the house repossession in June 2013
• the walk, in varying stages between 2013-2016
• Raymoth finding a new life in Cornwall and turning over a new leaf, Moth starting his studies at Plymouth Uni and Sal starting work on what was to become the multi million bestseller TSP
• they did meet somebody called Anna and did start living in Polruan sometime late in 2015
• they have paid back the outstanding Cooper debt
• they have a neurologist's letter stating that Moth had something similar to CBS. Maybe it is indeed a misdiagnosis of Moth's condition, but isn't that the neurologist's fault? If he hasn't got CBS, then maybe whatever condition Moth had, did indeed improve with a bit of walking.

I don't happen to agree with the above argument (for all the reasons discussed over the last 23 threads), but I suspect that whatever has been divulged in CH's articles, podcasts and Sky documentary, there will still be a significant number of people who enjoyed the book and it's descriptions of the SWCP and simply don't care whether it was 100% true or not!.

The Miracle | The Walkers Ep4
I left this podcast until last - because it upsets me to hear about those affected by this progressive condition. My reply to the supporters above would be from the CBS sufferer who used to enjoy the SWCP:

False hope - it's cruel

That's certainly true, but playing devil's advocate Sal fans might (ok I admit they probably wouldn't but for the sake of the argument bear with me!) adopt the JS Mill Utilitarian argument of the greatest good of the greatest number.

Those true sufferers with CBD (10K in the UK and far fewer who have either read TSP or walked the SWCP) are possibly outnumbered by those who have read TSP,subsequently embarked on a walk on the SWCP which has enabled them to overcome their personal life challenges.

For me, that is like asserting that it was much better that Sal and Tim had the Hemmings' money, his parents' money, her mother's money - because they were younger and were better placed to spend it.

Wow! The comments are well worth a read. There's only 4, ending with "Joe Black's" paragraph - which now with hindsight rings horribly true. He or she ends with a short and to the point sentence - "It's all twaddle!"
Would be interesting to know just who JoeBlack really is. And also Ivor Hedake!