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.

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@YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree : i think I prefer this to the "farmhouse".

@Freshsocks : am I remembering correctly that the doctors letters that SW chose to disclose (albeit in random order and incomplete) said that the doctor had observed unusual eye movements - but that any other symptoms come from TW and SW themselves (TW describing complaints to the doctor and SW saying things in the books and interviews)? For my part, I wouldn't be inclined to assume that SW and TW are reliable sources on this (or indeed anything else).

I hope everyone has had a good start to the weekend.

The neurologist was basing his tentative diagnosis on the two results, the datscan, and what he observed when he examined moth's eyes. I have been looking for things that could have caused the datscan results seen, other than a neurodegenerative condition. I think it might have been @ThisQuirkyRaven , who suggested that antidepressants, along with a whole host of other medications, could also show similar results, sorry if I have the wrong poster, drugs that can affect a datscan can be searched.

I looked as well at the eye results, these "around the houses" eye movements that the neurologist observed. They are found in other conditions, sometimes present from birth, again people would have to look this up. I asked about the ADHD, only because these eye movements are very common, in people with ADHD. Again any one wanting to confirm this will have to Google and search themselves.

Thank you @Peladon, I'm having a funny old start, it's my birthday and I have a stinker of a cold. Only two more days till the most depressing day of the year :)

@Freshsocks : thank you for setting me straight - I had forgotten the doctor mentioning the scans.

Happy birthday!! I hope that you'll recover from the cold quickly, and will then be able to have the happoest day of the year before or after the most depressing one.

That bugged me too. I know experienced hillwalkers who hire mountain guides to do the Cuillins to complete their round of the Munroes.

Sadly, it does sound as if the whole Hemmings family fell for their charms. The route in being TW. So important that, when SW is mostly talked about as the guilty party. I agree with you about the possibility of a crush. I had one or two myself at that age, on men who seemed so knowledgeable and good looking. I cringe now!
Being a very keen amateur gardener, I once did an RHS Level 2 Horticulture course as a correspondence course. Maybe he did something like this? No formal training is mentioned by SW, only knowledge. Gardener’s World and books can provide a lot of knowledge. Enough to impress a 15 year old perhaps? I think Ros maybe mentioned he did a lot of talking!

Happy Birthday, @Freshsocks! Hope that you manage to do something enjoyable despite your cold.

Thanks for the visuals on the Forest Row house, @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree .

Happy Birthday @Freshsocks and may the fudge be with you! Begone cold!

Happy Birthday @Freshsocks I hope you start to feel better soon 🎂

Thank you so much for your greetings everyone, I'm on the honey and lemon at the moment :)

Yes, thanks @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree , really interesting.

Rightmove says it sold for 320K in 2023 and it seems the garden studio was built by that point. Earliest sale price on Rightmove is £142,500 in 1997.

Please add a wee dram from me.

Happy Birthday @Freshsocks I hope you feel better soon

Yes, I think that's perfectly plausible.

To pull off this nature-themed, salt-flavoured, very successful Bonnie and Clyde phenomenon couldn't have worked without TW's charm and charisma.

SW, while the mover and shaker in terms of actively perpetrating the thefts, and writing the books, and fronting the publicity, is just not obviously likeable or open enough to create the necessary links with others.

She keeps being described as 'quiet', 'shy', 'guarded', and 'private', but everyone has a good word for 'rockstar' TW -- good-looking, charming, talkative, a natural people person.

And that's even before you add in the pathos of this life-enhancing dandy facing a cruel death...

TW was the one who got them involved with the Hemmingses in the first place, charmed everyone, and got SW the job that allowed her free access to a slightly chaotic small business that she scammed for seven years.

It appears to have been worries about TW's health and happiness that prevented his parents from going to the police when they discovered the theft from them.

'Anna' let them have the Polruan flat because of TW's charming loquacity.

BC clearly started off as a fan of SW's writing, but seems to have become closer to TW, the dying dandy. And it was his fears about TW's health, and his guilt that perhaps his expectations were too high for what he could manage on the cider farm, that led him to bend over backwards for them, and override all his own suspicions for so long.

Ruth Salperton thought SW was 'shy' and 'nervous' when she first called to Haye Farm, and while she herself had been concerned about potentially bringing Covid to the house of someone vulnerable, she says in the podcast that, to her surprise, TW was completely unconcerned about social distancing, and that it was 'like meeting a rockstar', referencing his unusual height, his good looks, his 'presence', his piercing eyes, and him being 'warm and friendly and talkative'.

It is important to note that there are 4 properties here as a row of terraced houses and i don't which one was the Walkers. But this link gives a general picture of what theirs was like, assuming they all have similar plans.

Drugs also alluded to in TSP re: heavenly end and the campsite/surfer commune they stay at where a surfer talks about free spiritism and a metaphor to do with fetch (of waves).

Afternoon all. I hope you are well today. I've got a lot of catching up to do again.

I'm going to go off on an expedition (rural dweller) to try to get a print copy of the Observer tomorrow. Print sales have long been in decline and, as investigative journalism like Our Chloe's is time-consuming and expensive, it would be good if as many as possible of us could cause a small spike at least this week. Feeling protective of us all as I do, I must admit to having some trepidation on behalf of our community (as well as a bit of excitement). I'm as in the dark as everyone else as to what it will actually read like, include and not. As a pp said, whatever happens we have to go with the flow - and remember that, if it all goes horribly wrong, we will only be next week's fish and chip wrappers/recycling. I'm really looking forward though to the enormous front page photo of us all on the charabanc with our best disappointed, enquiring, intuitive faces, not forgetting Vroom's one of ire with steam rising and Our Simon's missing one.

With thanks to pps including Priorlake and OneThousandThreads for the front page charabanc, and inside page cider trailer and badge images. I'm the one on the left wearing the hat and the expression of a kindly but firm and slightly terrified governess, standing in front of the man wearing the flat cap.

Just to clarify, the datscan was not mentioned in 2015 when the eye exam was, but in 2019.

Who has the best speaking voice - they could read it to us while we guzzle cider and fudge on the charabanc.
Alternatively we could start a list and get CH to pass it round in turn

Happy birthday @Freshsocks and hope you feel better soon..

@Freshsocks happy birthday! Hope you are feeling better soon and can wash the glumness away with your favourite cider/fudge/cream tea.

They're nice small cottages. One of the 3 of 4 on RM records is a one bed. The other sold for 67K in 1998. I'm really thinking now that there wouldn't have been a massive price differential between whichever theirs was and Pen Y Maes, especially if it were run down at the time. I can still make no sense of PYM being 'all they could afford' (well, either that or a dream home, depending on the Salray version) or how much the 'half their money' Tim is meant to have unwisely invested would have been.

It's more rural than I'd imagined but although I think the escapee child prompting a move is another fantasy, I'd have wanted a sturdy fence with a locked gate so close to that road.

Alcohol use can also cause saccadic eye movements and impair DAT scan results.

Thanks @DisappointedReader : i will buy the hard copy tomorrow, for the very reason you mention.

I think they've both got nice voices. I know this sounds like utter crawling and it truly isn't, but I was v impressed with Our Chloe's broadcasting presence on the podcasts.

I can't see either of them happily cooperating with having to read HNTDDD aloud, though, however much cider, fudge and sloe gin we chuck at them!

Thank you for clarifying that @YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree the dates and the birthday wishes, ooh a scone would be nice, but is it cream then jam, or jam then cream? Thank you for the greeting@AgitatedGoose, I don't think I'm in any fit state today, I'm going to down some medicinal sloe gin and lay under the back seat for a snooze :)