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

Do Elias & Baxter stay together, madly in love until end of book?

Here's a postcard from our FH album, I've pencilled on the back "? Clacton 1926" which was guesswork but based on other photos. One of my Aunts is on the back seat, on the off side.
I can just remember a holiday in Sidmouth circa 1947 where tourists could ride on a charabanc - there were referred to as "toast-racks".----

Elias is also an anagram of 'i.e. Sal'

It was I who mentioned the historical links of the names with nonconformity in Wales, and that Elias is a fairly common surname in north Wales (a surname search on 192.com for 'Elias' has about 16 hits in the Pwllheli area alone, for instance). Elias in particular has historic links with Welsh Methodism. My guess is that Sal picked it as a familiar sounding name to her (and it's also an anagram of 'i.e.Sal' !).

Lol - imagine all the easter eggs we’d find if we had the text. I still don’t know how it ends - does Elias get forgiven?

I read Elias but in my head I hear 'Alias'.

Wikipedia's page about TSP now describes the book as a "fictionalised" memoir..

Late night greetings one and all. Your posts are keeping me company whilst I'm (finally) eating supper. Risotto and a thread catch up. All that's missing is a glass of cider to go with it. I hope you are all sleeping the sleep of the innocent, something that cannot be said for Macpath and Lady Macpath.

The burden of proof in civil cases is lower. I suspect there wouldn't be much of a problem proving Sally Walker/Raynor Winn wrote HNTDDD as Izzy Wyn-Thomas, TSP wasn't her first book and she wrongly took the £10k CB prize. I doubt she'd let it get to court, preferring to repay the prize money to avoid the hassle, publicity and legal costs.

One thing I've always wondered about is why there is only one photo of them walking the stretch between West Bay and Polruan. This is of their tent and Moth appearing to be relieving himself at Penlee Point. It's also the first photo that appears on Sal's IG feed on 24 Oct.

It's 176 miles between West Bay (where they left Dave and Julie) and Polruan. That's 28% of the entire SWCP!. Why aren't there any photos? If they walked this stretch in 2016 they had more money and they took at least 5 photos between Poole and West Bay

This photo epitomises the stupidity of believing their 630 miles camping story. This photo is to show they are at a significant place - so they have Queen Adelaide's Grotto in their photo. If you look at Q A's Grotto on Google Maps - someone called Lynn Stevens has put a shot showing how steep and rocky their selected emplacement is!

There are fields behind them on the other side of the path. 🙄

Apart from a Polish waitress in a cafe in Looe, and the cafe owner where they met Anna, there is absolutely no independent verification that they walked any of the stretch between West Bay and Polruan in 2015 or 2016. It's possible that the photo at Adelaide's Chapel was part of a short w-e hike.

If you discount the stretches they admitted they skipped (Seaton to Westward Ho, Portland, Dawlish to Brixham) and the bits they may have got a lift (Newquay to St Ives), they may have walked no more than around 300 of the 630 miles of the SWCP over 3 years! Quite a thought

Yes the whole of the south coast reads like excursions to check out the place for the book! No one has ever found a Costa Rican at Talland or a particular Polish waitress, to the best of my knowledge.

I know this stretch by sea as well as land - why I picked up that the writing about ferries, or lack of a mention, reads like they haven't been on them.

As they were living in Cornwall from 2015 onwards it is most likely short trips. Possibly, as the horticultural degree was affiliated by Plymouth Uni, they drove their sometimes, put up the tent in front of the Grotto and took some pics.

Of course, if ( and its a big if) they only walked 300 miles over 4 years, this would equate to 75 miles a year! At their walking speed, achievable im a fortnight. Nit much of a big deal when you think about it!

'Course. Not as if we’re on a purist mission, is it?’

Somehow that photo appears staged to me & the tent looks infrequently pitched - glossy.

More evidence for staging. It’s like proving I’ve been to Paris by photographing the Louvre, Eiffel Tower & various landmarks.

I think we just need to agree the whole thing is a fiction. There are a few grains of truth which they weave their narrative around. A few years ago there was a rainforest themed Café at a small seaside resort east of Talland. I think the owner is the man they refer to. They mention a pub in Polperro that many people know. They clearly lived in Polruan for awhile. Like all good confidence tricksters, they feed us a little bit of the truth to win our trust and reel us in.

Also not a considerate spot for hikers to wild camp imo, assuming the chapel is a location people like to visit. "Oh, isn't this love--ly [gathers children and recoils at the presence of the homeless tramps]"

Did I hear CH or someone disproved the Shakespearean actor lift?

I don't know if this would bother her unduly, but if the CB prize is taken away, then TSP loses its 'prize winning' status. Although it was shortlisted for other prizes, it didn't win those. And I don't think Sal would like that feeling of relegation.

The CB prize should go to rightful winner.

Yes! They said legally they wouldn’t give anybody a lift in their van and also they leave their costumes at the theatre! When do you think about it, of course they do. You don’t see David Tennant coming out of a West End theatre dressed as Hamlet!

Lol. By including it, it must mean there’s a sensitivity about that stretch of path or point in time?

But there wasn't a runner up prize, so it would presumably have to go to a rejudging otherwise how will they know who to give it to?