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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Why, indeed! Possibly the scarcity value? Or the hope that owning a copy represents a good investment - ? collectors items in years to come, perhaps.
Somehow I doubt it, although I have not disposed of our copy of TSP.

I'm hoping that we will still have the opportunity to put questions to Chloe H.

The 2 page spread in the print version of the Observer was, I thought, excellent. The timeline of her investigations - superimposed on a skeletal map of the SWCP - clearly showed just how much work was undertaken and thorough checks made before 5th July publication. The picture of a rocky cove headed the article in the print version, looks like somewhere in Cornwall - just out of interest can we find out where?

Also, according to the podcast the whole lift with the still costumed Iolanthe cast didn't happen and would never happen. Quelle surprise.

@Freshsocks you put into words my musings on Timoth's anal sphincter disorder (shoot me now, someone, please) PIP being awarded on how medical issues affect your daily life and ability to function not the condition itself. Another quite difficult to prove or disprove thing I'd think, although I'm still intrigued about the 'cardiac issues' and how vague that is.

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat I'm going to write to the CB Prize organisers to point them in the direction of the podcast and HNTDDD, if it isn't proff I have no idea what is. We know Penguin should be renamed Ostrich but maybe they might be receptive. Having raised the topic, have blood pressure meds and beta blockers in abundance if you require!

@DisappointedReader ' All the President's Charabancers' has a ring I think.

Sorry to have brought that up @Uricon2 :)

Many threads ago @Aussiebornandbred, if I'm not mistaken, made a post late at night, but morning time in "The land down under." They asked what we thought would happen next and suggested some directions things could take, it reminded me of the late 70s early 80s TV series Soap.
The opening of the show started with a run down of what was going on with the different characters and how bizarre it all was, very much like this story.

https://share.google/fgtwP7Np6xDORg7OC

I don't know if this link will work, it's the first time that I have tried to add one. The episodes ended with the narrator saying, "These questions and many more will be answered in the next episode."

The scandal will definitely have boosted sales of the book. No doubt about that. There's no such thing as bad publicity.

I remember 'Soap'! Yes, it was almost as labyrinthian as the saga (and I don't mean Beowulf!)

It was very funny @Uricon2, and so difficult to follow what was going on a lot of the time, very much like this saga.

I think SalRay & those close buying up as hugely incriminating.

I wondered about that too @PinkPanther57, I think there could be good money for reselling as @UpfromSomerset says, even reselling to Salray or family as you suggest. In the podcast I thought CH said, that Salray didn't deny that she had written it, but not admitted it? Is she still going to try and wriggle off the hook?

I’d sell mine - if I had one? Why keep? Esp as would get quite a bit. Just can’t understand why ‘entirely understandable’ for copy holders to never want to part from it!

Didn't the journalist who was working with Our Chloe find a copy of HNTDDD on US Amazon, after much searching? I think there are only about 250 copies in existence which puts them on a continuum which has the Dead Sea Scrolls at one end and Harry Potter at the other towards the former end of the scale.

In literary terms it is IMO from everything I've heard worthless but as it is basically a confession letter to various things, important in Salworld, Chloeworld and Charabancworld.

ETA Trump probably has it as a 'how to' guide. Still chuckling at us being bumped from the Observer because of him and the Greeenland/tariffs thing.

I wouldn't have thought that it would be "entirely understandable" that someone would keep it, not just for prosperity. More entirely understandable, that if they sell, they are going to hang on until they get a high price, from one of us :)

Gangani etc surely a huge smoking gun never mind name/s, directorships etc. Then there’s the subject matter which IMO contains a few things they don’t want in public domain!

Most of general public not aware of HNTDDD & the raffle etc of house I think casts doubts on some of their unflinchingly honest truths. Then there’s competition eligibility…

My hunch is there’s something in it Salray REALLY don’t want attention drawn to.

CH seems to think otherwise - if it’s really her commenting online.

Yes - I believe she/her team have a copy.

There does seem to be some doubt as to whether the CB prize actually explicitly statedthat year that anyone who had self published previously was excluded from entering. I would just say, however, that there are many competitions for 'first published books' and that entrants who have previously self published usually get in touch to find out whether they are allowed to enter a subsequently traditionally published book, as it's sometimes not stated in the initial rules of entry.

But I hold to my view that anyone previously published is ineligible and I would be utterly appalled if Penguin entered a book without checking and double checking previously published status, both with the committee running the competition and also with their author.

I’d read HNTDDD, if only to reassure myself that if Sal can write a novel then so can I (bucket list item). I reckon if we got our collective hands on it it would provide an awful lot of extra confirmation of things we’ve proposed/suspected. My gut thinks it’s almost a true story, with just a few details changed (and not details about what “Elias” and “Baxter” get up to, but about their motives and musings).

Do you think Chloe would lend us her copy? :)

@Freshsocks Chloe, armed with a photocopier and a lot of patience, could have a very nice little side hustle selling illegal copies of HNTDDD to any interested parties...

Although I am sure she is far too classy to do any such thing.

What we know is that Timothy Walker was the sole director of Gangani Publishing.

The writer of HNTDDD is Sally Walker, under a pseudonym

Does that not make him the only publisher and her the only author?

Actually, yes, this means that HNTDDD probably wouldn't count as self published (even though it was), although I'm not sure how Gangani would stand as an ACTUAL publishing company, with only the one book on its...umm... books.

@Freshsocks @DoubtfulCat @BewilderingBrandy I think HNTDD merits a podcast episode as they have the book? Surely the chapters & parallel themes can be discussed?

Why is it such a sensitive hot potato?

Can anyone summarise the plot? Someone has a drug addition? There were a few more details in HNTDDD given in a recent Observer article I think.

We couldn't find out if Salray was the author, because of the pseudonym. We all thought that she had written it, but there was no way of getting that confirmed. What has changed now, Chloe has the book, Salray hasn't denied writing it. What has changed things about having the physical copy of the book?

She definitely has a copy. It's discussed in the last ep of the podcast and there is no way on the green Earth it was written by anyone but Salray, embezzlement and all.

The Mars Bar in a cup of tea anecdote appears in both TSP and HNTDDD almost word for word.

I made a mistake in my last post. I should have said that I suspect in HNTDDD some events WERE changed but motivations were true. Sorry, was dishing up the dinner as I was also trying to join in the conversation 🙃

People are curious. That's all.

Plus, there is still the matter of the CB 'First Book' prize won for TSP. If HNTDDD can absolutely be pinned to SalRay, then she won that prize under false pretences (plus the 10k prize money, which really annoys me...)