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]

NO POSTS PLEASE UNTIL THREAD 22 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?

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

Presumably HNTDDD is copyright of the author, and could only be puublished in full with her consent. I can see that she might not be very keen.

What if Salray decides to publish it?

@DisappointedReader I admit to checking my email inbox frequently to see if Phoebe has got back re use of real name/username, not that I expect the quote to be used and totally unbothered by that.

Doesn't it all feel weird though?😂

Maybe she could rename it OWH and give it to Penguin - problem solved.

His pay was less than the dole? Either he wasn’t working full time or the National Trust were paying about 75p per hour! The minimum wage back then was £5.35 per hour for adults over 22, the dole was about £50 per week!

No apology necessary at all @Freshsocks ! I was just offering reassurance after you'd said you were reluctant to mention your cannabis theory. I think our last two posts about it crossed. Many Happy Returns and get well soon!

Unless I misheard, i think that was said. I had better check lest mistakes were made.

Oh we need the laugh emoji back!

@YourMoneyforFrothingandYourChipsforFree Going back to head gardener job, please. I remember, many threads ago, we had a poster called Debs who was a gardener and she said that back then the NT didn't require high qualifications to secure that sort of job. We then got caught up in the well if he had a botany degree why did he get a grant for a horticultural degree debate. And that there is a very qualified botanist called Tim Walker.

I also remember Ros Hemmings, in a low-key but meaningful way, saying that he didn't seem to have any ideas. I wondered if he had been asked to raise his game and couldn't/didn't?

I had the email from Phoebe, she said she’d use a quote from some background blurb I sent to her (I also didn’t read the original request properly, I don’t consider myself a main poster or sleuth particularly).
Phoebe did set out the quote to be used and the name from my email account. I asked her to use my real name instead so I can show off! That was around 7pm last night, I’ve not heard back.

Thank you for your good wishes, everyone is being very kind to me, I know I haven't met you @DisappointedReader, but I never want to disappoint you :)
I really want to get a copy of the Observer tomorrow as well, I only just managed to get a copy last time. I hope it's going to be a really good piece.

I don't just mean that I don't want to disappoint you @DisappointedReader, in case you start a whole MN thread about me :)

I made it really clear that I definitely hadn't been involved in any of the deep dives but she sent back a quote from the email and asked if she could use it (of course depending on space and the Editor) which was fine, she'd used my real name from my email addie and I asked her to change it to my username. Not too bothered if that isn't picked up.

DH is being told very little now as if I hear one more witticule about 'they will be cutting on the stone as we speak!' I may strangle him. Apparently cutting on the stone is an (old time) journo term for rearranging typeface upside down and back to front or something, a prized skill which allegedly he had.

Won't have any dinner unless the mockery stops though 😂

As Saltim are never slow to see an opportunity to cash in, this was my thought too.

I'm tempted to ask Our Chloe or the finder of HNTDDD if I can borrow it and read it in disguise on YouTube, especially for us all but also to reduce the Saltim cashflow opportunity! I'm used to reading books aloud but wouldn't have a clue how to organise the YouTube aspect. Perhaps another charabancer would be better qualified or it would be wonderful if OC or OS would indeed accept bribes from us and take on the job.

Just scrolling though past threads and stumbled across this picture of Raymoth's tent (independent article). The article seems to allude to the fact that the picture was taken on 630 mile walk. Anyway, here's a link to Vango's archive. I think the tent first came into existence in 2014

If she sold HNTDDD, would she throw in a free house again?

OC "No thank you, I'm off to that v serious reporting job in Syria I was meant to start before I was drawn into this madness"

OS " OK. I don't fancy reading that erm...book... thing... but would a short passage from Beowulf be alright? I mean, I know I wouldn't be able to compete with Timoth. Yeah, 72 bottles of sloe gin will do it"

You'll never disappoint me @Freshsocks !

And I'd like to assure you, and everyone else, that I'm never going to start a thread on anything else ever again after this lot!!!

There, you all have it in writing.

If I do, I'll be very disappointed...in myself!!!

My only fear is that, like childbirth, I might forget in time and decide to create another one!!!

Free places on their Unwellness Retreat instead?

Unsold copies of her 3 fiction books and the Saltlines journal?

As I don't shy away from the awkward questions ..... do we have a realistic prediction of when this company will be wound up? We have been so immersed for six months so ...just so we can prevent mass decompression sickness ...

If you sound confident then people will believe you and think you're knowledgeable as you spout rubbish.

I know someone who tells us how people think he's so wonderful and amazing at his work... He is the sort of person who knows he is right even when he's totally wrong and speaking to an expert.
I come across a lot of people who know him in a professional capacity.
Those who are more knowledgeable say he's a pain in the neck, never listens to anyone else and bullies anyone out if they are clearly more experienced etc.
The new starters in early 20s think he's brilliant, never pus a foot wrong and hang on his every word. Some of them manage to grow out of it...

DH is being told very little now as if I hear one more witticule about 'they will be cutting on the stone as we speak!' I may strangle him. Apparently cutting on the stone is an (old time) journo term for rearranging typeface upside down and back to front or something, a prized skill which allegedly he had.
Won't have any dinner unless the mockery stops though 😂

On second thoughts it sounds, and not for the first time, like I need to start a thread about your DH @Uricon2. Do feel free to threaten him with it!

WRT Tim and his credentials for being Head Gardener and all, Debbie Hemmings says that 'he taught her a lot', but that doesn't necessarily mean that what he taught her was actually correct...

Gardens can be surprisingly forgiving and if stuff fails it's perfectly easy to blame the conditions/soil type/light levels etc when in fact you've just plain planted the wrong thing.

More tents! SW is discussing the tent in the video link as if it is the tent from the walk. It's a Vango Mirage 300 which was first sold in 2014.

Exactly and she was a young person who wouldn't have had that much experience of her own probably.

Maybe Timoth has green fingers (and not just from counting the money) maybe not but we all know there are people who coast through life on a fairly shallow ertsatz 'charisma' that isn't based on what they are and know but what people think they are and know.